Allies and Enemies
by steamfan
Summary: Story 3 in Life after the invasion. The Winchester Clan gathers new allies and discovers it has a new enemy.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Allies and Enemies

Universe: Life after the Invasion

Disclaimer: I do not own anything belonging to Buffy the Vampire, Supernatural, or Charmed TV shows. This is intended for fun and not for profit.

Warnings: I am going with an AU version of Charmed, mainly that Prue didn't die. A few other things are also changed. There are several possible romances beginning and continuing. The Demon is included in this story.

"Your charge?" the oldest man growled. All three of the men were pointing guns at her. Paige Mathews hadn't noticed much more than that as she really hadn't faced that sort of situation before and she was finding it much more intimidating than an encounter with a demon.

"Yeah, as in I heard one of these two cry and I came and I saw that they were being held by a snake demon so I orbed them over to me. Then you killed the demon and now you're pointing guns at me and can you please put them away? Pretty please?" she added.

"Charge, orbed," Sam Winchester mumbled to himself. "Are you saying you're a White Lighter?"

"Sam?" John and Dean barked as one.

"White Lighters are guardian angels for witches," Sam began.

"Natural born witches and we don't look after those who chose evil," Paige interrupted.

"Johnny," all three men sighed.

"If my charge is Johnny, why isn't this little lady?" Paige asked, relieved as the guns lowered.

"Party's over guys," Jordan quickly ushered the guests out the door. She knew that sort of information wasn't for everyone in the world to hear and that there would be more coming.

Paige heard Jordan and waited until the party guests had left. "Siblings should both be witches if one is a natural born." She walked over to the one chair that wasn't covered in demon goop. "You know Johnny, usually I'm supposed to let you handle the demon body removal part of the job, but seeing as no one is going to have a place to sit and you're still so young I'm going to make an exception this once." She looked around the room. "Demon body parts," she said and orbed the remains out into the ocean. She was sure that was a good place to dispose of them. She'd seen her sisters do it often enough.

She settled down and finally looked the men in the face. "You're the Winchesters!" she said shocked. "So who are these little guys then?"

"My son and daughter," Dean said flatly. Even if this was Johnny's guardian angel he wasn't too happy with her still holding on to them. He wanted to hold his children and make sure that they were safe and unharmed.

"Congratulations on keeping that quiet," Paige was impressed. Being famous and keeping the fact that he had kids out of the papers was a big achievement. "So why isn't Johnny's sister a natural born witch too?"

"Because she's going to be a Slayer," John was watching this young woman with everything he had and he knew that something wasn't completely on the up and up with her. There was something she wasn't saying.

"First one in the family to be a witch, huh?" Paige asked Johnny, who was busy flirting for all he was worth. "Yeah, you're a cutie alright. Great, so I've got a Melinda on my hands," she muttered to herself.

Just then a small toddler orbed in front of the chair she was sitting in. "Ory, Annie Age! Ory!" he cried and shoved a book at her before stuffing a thumb in his mouth.

"Wyatt! What are you doing up? Does your mommy know where you are?" Not waiting for an answer she knew wasn't going to be coming from her nephew she called, "LEO! Wyatt's with me and he's asking for story time!" Looking down at Wyatt she said, "You know squirt, I'm working right now. I really don't have time for stories."

"ORY!" the young boy wasn't about to give up.

"I thought you said you were a White Lighter." The guns were back up and pointing at her.

"I am, well half. My birth father was a White Lighter before he clipped his wings and my birth mother was one of his charges, but I follow my birth father's path for the most part. I tend to get the charges that need a little more protection than the average witch."

"Isn't that frowned on?" Sam asked.

Just then Leo orbed in with Amber right behind him. "Wyatt, you know you're not supposed to bother your Auntie Paige when she's working!" he scolded, scooping his son up.

"Auntie Paige!" Amber squealed.

Leo just shook his head. They were just as stubborn as their mother. "Amber,"

"Leo, the danger is over and we have a little situation here. Johnny here is a first born natural born, like Melinda was. Can you go and get the rest of the family?" Paige interrupted his scolding. "His family is going to need some help, especially if they are as trouble challenged as their reputation says."

Leo looked puzzled until he looked around and saw just who Paige was looking at. He stiffened up but before he could do or say anything Paige was already waving him down. "Don't worry, Leo. They're just not ready to trust us yet. They won't shoot anyone without reason. And if they tried, you know I'd just drop them into a lake somewhere or something."

"Paige!" Leo wasn't as shocked as he sounded, but still.

"I know, I know, don't be so bloodthirsty, Paige. Sheesh! I just said I'd drop them in a lake, I didn't say I'd vanquish them! It's a perfectly nonviolent way to deal with the problem." Leo orbed out, amused at Paige's skirting of the line. "Now, to answer your question, yes, it is frowned on and my birth parents had to hide me after I was born. You see there is this prophecy thing and I and my nieces and nephews are a part of it. Half born, three times three, is what our part of the prophecy says.

"The guy who just left is my brother in law and he is a full White Lighter. In fact he is my half sisters' White Lighter and he married my sister Piper. Their marriage was really hard to get approved, but they finally did it. So their children are also half born. I've got two nephews and a niece."

Dean wasn't about to shoot a baby or a little girl so he put his gun back into the holster at the small of his back. Then he stepped up to Paige and took Mary and Johnny out of her arms.

"So where is these little guys' mom?" Paige asked as she pulled Amber into her lap. She had noticed the casts of course, but she also knew through her healing ability that the little girl didn't need them anymore.

"The bitch is dead," Dean growled. He sighed and threw a satisfied smirk at Paige. "I found out she was abusing the kids the same day I found out they existed. She died in jail and I have custody."

"Don't expect me to get all teary eyed for her," Paige drawled. "I work as a file clerk at CPS. Anyone who would do that to such a tiny baby gets what she deserves." She could see that her attitude relaxed the men almost as much as seeing that the twins hadn't been hurt at all. "She doesn't need those casts now. She's all healed."

"We're getting them off in the morning. I'd take them off myself, but CPS is watching me like a hawk because her mother abused her. There's no way I can skip anything without risking losing her and I know it. That means I have to take her to the doctor to get them off." Dean looked mulishly into the distance for a moment. He hated this being legal shit sometimes. "So, tell me about how you can be half angel and how does an angel clip his wings?"

"I'm half angel because I was conceived before my birth father clipped his wings, which means to give up his powers and to become fully human again. A White Lighter can make that decision any time he or she wishes. Most never do of course, but since they were once fully human, no powers or anything, God understands that sometimes a White Lighter will fall in love or be so hurt by losing one of their charges or something that he gives them that option." She smiled, "Of course, they're not supposed to fall in love with their charges but that happens sometimes too."

"Much to the Elder's dismay," Piper said as Leo orbed the rest of the family in. She was holding Chris and Phoebe was holding Wyatt while Prue was prepared for trouble.

Seeing that everyone was much calmer than when he left Leo ushered everyone into seats close to Paige. "Introductions are in order I guess," Paige said. "Ok, Leo you already know. These are my half sisters; Prue, Piper and Phoebe Halliwell. Leo is married to Piper and these are their children; Amber, Wyatt and Chris. My sisters are natural born witches."

"John Winchester, my sons Dean and Sam, my grandchildren Johnny and Mary, our Slayers Hannah and Jordan, and this is Jessica Moore, Sam's girlfriend and fellow Watcher in training." John said, introducing the people on his side of the room.

"And Johnny is a Melinda and my new charge. A demon was running off with him and his sister when I got here. I orbed them away from the demon and they dealt with it and its friends." Paige summed up the events of the evening for her family.

"Why do you keep saying that he's a Melinda?" Sam asked. He knew his brother was getting upset every time Paige said it but he knew that there had to be a good reason for it, mostly because if there wasn't then Dean was going to blow his gasket.

"Melinda Warren was the first witch of our family line. It goes like this. The first natural born witch in a family will always pass on that ability with magic to any of his or her children. In our family there was a prophecy, which led to only girls being born until the prophecy was fulfilled. Wyatt is the first boy born in three hundred years, but he still has inherited Piper's ability to do magic." Phoebe explained.

"So, my son is a warlock and his kids will be witches and warlocks, no matter what," Dean said trying to get a handle on the situation.

"No!" Prue said flatly. She hated the common mistake that a lot of people made by referring to male witches as warlocks. "A male witch isn't a warlock. A warlock is an oathbreaker, someone who chooses to do evil. A male witch is just that and there are female warlocks. The first rule of magic is 'do no harm'. We can't use our magic to punish or kill regular humans. It is given to us to protect others and to vanquish evil and for no other purpose."

"There is also the rule of consequences," Piper added. "If you do a selfish or a personal gain spell, the results backfire on you three fold. It really isn't fun," Piper said with a straight face. Prue and Phoebe couldn't quite manage it.

"I just wish I'd been around to see your first days," Paige muttered with a blush. The punishment curse she'd cast on the sleaze in her office had backfired spectacularly by giving her normally small chest porno sized breasts, something she really hadn't wanted. At the Winchester's raised eyebrows (and it was cute to see that they all did it at the same time without realizing it) she explained, "Punishing the sleaze ball wasn't worth it."

The question and answer session continued for two hours until the Halliwells had to leave to help P3's staff close the club for the night. "So, you'll show up when Johnny's in danger?" Dean asked as he handed Paige Wyatt's storybook.

"I'll show up if he calls for me," she cautioned. "Even at this age he can get the message to me that he needs me. And, like Prue said, if Willow can't get a good teacher for him, anyone of us is willing to pitch in. We've got our own to school you know." She smiled, "And I just know the boys are going to just love having another witch around their age, especially one who isn't a girl!" With that she orbed back down to San Francisco after her family.

John sighed. "Alright everybody, let's call it a night. Most of you have school in the morning." He carried Mary up to her room, followed by Dean and Johnny. "At least we know he's got some serious reinforcements he can call on," he told Dean. Dean nodded. It did help to know that his son could call on Paige even at this age.


	2. Chapter 2

Mike knew he'd made a huge mistake all those years ago when it came to his friend John Winchester and his boys. He'd prayed for a way to make up for it for months, ever since he'd seen John and Dean on TV hunting down the monsters that he had told John didn't exist. He had the perfect way to do that standing in front of him right now. He was the one who had called CPS on John after Mary had died and it had looked to him like John was going off the deep end. But John hadn't gone off the deep end; he'd been right when he'd said something had killed Mary. And now he had a way to repay the debt he owed his old friend.

He turned to the representative of the California Child Protective Services and told the absolute truth. "There wasn't a better father than John Winchester. I'd known him for years and now I know that I was wrong to call anyone all those years ago. A demon killed his wife and John did what he had to do to protect his sons. There is no way Dean or Sam would ever hurt any child any more than their father would. I don't care what you have to say, lady. Those men are good people no matter what the grocery store rags have to say."

"But you did call CPS, sir and it's been almost twenty years since you've seen or heard from them."

"That doesn't matter. I've watched the news and I've read everything I could get my hands on through the net and other wise. Nothing I've seen or read has shown me that any of them have changed in such a fundamental way. John is a gentleman and a soldier, if not an officer. He's raised his boys up the same way. I saw that when little Sammy protected his school staff from that demon last spring, and those reports from those paparazzo's that Dean's psycho?

"I'm more inclined to believe that they tried their usual tricks and got what they deserved. I mean, how many times have these guys snuck into people's homes and stuff like that trying to get nudie pictures? If they want to sneak up on someone who hunts things that kill people for a living I for one, am not surprised to find out they got a gun or something shoved in their face. Those people need a little common sense if you ask me."

"So you don't believe that John or Mary Winchester are in any danger from their father?" This was what Melissa had hoped to find. Not someone the family had helped, or a fellow demon hunter, but a family friend who would stand up and say that there was no chance Dean would ever hurt his children.

Mike blew a raspberry. "The only thing they're in danger of is being taught how to protect themselves from demons and other monsters before they're old enough to go to school. I know for a fact that Dean is the most protective big brother in the world and I seriously doubt that he would be any less so with his children."

"Would you be willing to testify to that?"

"In a heartbeat," Mike said. He had enough people to cover for him to take a trip to California and he had more than a little reason to do so.

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"Hey doc!" Dean sailed into the examine room of the twins' pediatrician and set his bag down on the chairs provided for the parents. He really liked Dr. Jensen, and not just because she was a hot lady. She treated his kids right, flirting right back with Johnny and being sympathetic, rather than syrupy or condescending to Mary.

"Hey to you too Mr. Winchester and how are Johnny and Mary today?" Dr. Jensen asked. She liked the Winchester family, even after the really extensive background check that they had done on her. It wasn't every patient's parent that checked her all the way back to medical school AND checked to make sure she was fully human. But then the family business was the supernatural so she supposed that was a routine check for them.

Dean was gently removing both Johnny and Mary from their baby carriage. He liked the old fashioned carriage design better than the stroller models because there was more room for the twins to move around and he could (and had) put a tube filled with rock salt around the edges. "I need you to check Johnny out today too doc. A snake demon tried to carry them both off last night. We checked them out and couldn't find anything wrong, but I want to make sure that they're alright."

"A snake demon tried to kidnap them last night? Why?" she asked as she hurriedly checked Johnny out. Dean was right; there wasn't a mark on him. She smiled at him and gave him a tickle as she traded places with Dean so she could check out Mary.

"They are fanatics, so our guess is that they needed a baby sacrifice, although why they would be stupid enough to storm a Slayer house is beyond us. Oh, and you probably need to know this for their medical records, I guess. I mean, I'm not sure, I'm still getting used to this everybody knowing what we do stuff." Dean paused with a bit of a confused look on his face. "Do you need to know if they have magical stuff happen to them? I mean, I told you about the demon cause I wanted you to double check for physical injuries, but I don't know the rules about magic."

"You know, you're the first parent to ever ask me about that," Dr. Jensen was determined to not freak out over the total and complete insanity of the question because for this family it probably wasn't crazy at all. "You'd better tell me and if I think it needs to go into their records, I'll write it down."

"Ok, uh last night before the demon attack we had a friend of the family show up. She works as a witch for the Watcher's Council, like my dad and I work as Watchers. She cast the spell that pinpoints Potentials, that's what they call girls who are going to grow up to be Slayers, and she came to tell us that Mary is a Potential. While she was there she also figured out that Johnny is a witch as well."

"He's a witch? Don't you mean warlock?"

"No, I got that lecture last night. A warlock is a witch gone bad and Johnny's just a baby so he's a witch because he's an innocent." Dean smirked.

"Ok, I'll remember that. Now, I don't need to write any of that down unless they come down with something that relates to it. How are they doing other wise?" Dr. Jensen asked as she checked Mary's fingers. The little girl was busy wiggling them, so she knew that there were no further problems there.

"They're both sleeping through the night finally. They're also making a bunch of sounds but nothing that sounds even close to being understandable. Johnny's rolling over and sitting up by himself. Mary's mostly frustrated. She really wants to play." Dean said with assurance. He was an attentive father and knew exactly what was going on with his kids most of the time.

"It sounds like Johnny is right on schedule, allowing for the fact that they were two months premature. Mary's behind but now that we're taking the casts off she should catch up quickly." Dr. Jensen told Dean.

"Knowing her, she'll probably throw herself into outdoing her brother. We've gotten used her 'me too' noise." Dean laughed. "She's inherited my dad and brother's temperament."

"Mr. Winchester, normally I wouldn't tell you this, but I have seen such a huge improvement in Johnny and Mary over the last two months that I know you're a good father. Your caseworker has been poking around and I think she has it in for you. I know she doesn't like your profession or the fact that your entire family is involved in it."

Dean sighed and put out his hand to keep Johnny from rolling off the examining table. "I had hoped I was just being paranoid. You'd better include the witch and potential information in their records then. Sooner or later a judge will be looking at the paperwork and it might make a difference. And here I had hoped that everybody knowing that we're demon hunters would make things easier."

"Easier how?" Dr. Jensen asked. She couldn't imagine how knowing the fact that they hunted monsters for a living would be an improvement with CPS.

"People were always assuming that my dad was a drunken drifter who abused his kids. We'd show up at school with a few bruises from sparing practice, or when we were older, from hunting ghosts and then of course they'd go and call CPS. I grew up scared shi, I mean spitless of them." He blushed; he hadn't meant to start swearing in front of the pretty doctor.

She smiled; Dean wasn't trying his usual flirting on her she knew. She'd heard him hitting on her nurse before, but damn if the man wasn't the cutest single dad she'd ever seen. It was also far more effective as far as she was concerned. She saw so few men who really deserved to be dads. "Well, if it comes down to that I'll be more than happy to testify on your behalf. You're a good dad, Dean Winchester." She set up the tools that she needed to take off Mary's casts.

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Marcus wasn't going to make his decision about how the situation with the snake demons right away. He needed more information. On the surface, they had paid for the information and what they did with it was their problem. That was standard procedure with all of his information selling and everyone knew it. On the other hand, the Watchers, if not the Slayers, would know that someone had sold the information that the kids the Kreeekk'ick needed were in that house.

What to do, what to do he thought to himself as he added up the take from the night before. "Mr. Marcus, sir?" A minion peered around the door to his office. "The Watcher, he's out in the bar."

It was still afternoon, just after the serious drinkers started rolling in. Now, it could have been that Winchester just wanted to find a new drinking place. The chances of that were about non existent though. He was here for a reason. It was time to have someone else run a little interference. There was no way in any hell any demon or human could name that he was going to stick his head out in that noose.

"Send Reginald out. His orders are to treat the Watcher like any other customer." The minion nodded. Reginald was a big Quectra demon, a neutral species. He knew the score and wouldn't do anything to bring trouble down on their heads. Marcus hoped he wouldn't anyway. He'd just have to see how this played out.


	3. Chapter 3

John Winchester sat down at the bar and waited to be noticed. It wasn't his reputation that he was counting on to keep him safe. It was the no violence spell that demon bars had to have to stay in business that he counted on; at least a classy place like this usually had them. It was the dives that you really had to watch out for.

While he and Dean were more comfortable in the dives, in this town, here was the place you came if wanted information, and right now he needed information. Someone had sent those demons after his grandchildren and while the demons had paid the price for that mistake, the one who had sent them hadn't. And if there was one thing that had to be driven home to the demon community hard and fast, it was that you didn't mess with any of the Winchesters, especially those who were unable to defend themselves.

"Watcher," Reginald spoke respectfully.

John looked up at the demon, and continued to look up. 'Man, this one's big,' he thought. "Someone sent Kreeekk'ick demons after my grandchildren," he said, his voice quiet and hard. "We took care of them but whoever sent them is going to pay."

The tone in the Watcher's voice reminded Reginald that John Winchester hadn't started out as a Watcher. He was a Hunter first and the reputation he had as a Hunter was a formidable one. He knew the Boss had hoped that Winchester's reputation was exaggerated because he had taken the job as a Watcher. The old Council would never have hired him otherwise but it looked to him like the new Council didn't have any problems hiring a ruthless killer to watch over their Slayers.

Reginald wasn't stupid. He decided to spill his guts without making the man pay for it. "They came in about three weeks ago, looking for information on mystical babies for one of their ceremonies. We deal in information here. You pay for the information and what you do with it is your problem, not ours. I'm sorry they decided to go after your grandkids, Watcher, but that was their choice."

"No one sent them then?" John wanted to be clear on that.

"No sir. They picked out which kids to go after, not us." He wasn't about to tell them that the Boss had only given them two names.

"That's good because you know what would have happened if I thought you had sent them after my grandkids?" John asked with a smile on his face. It was the smile that really freaked out Reginald and he didn't bother to try to hide it. "My family would have shut you down and I don't think any of you would have enjoyed the process. Tell your boss that rock salt might not kill him, but it hurts like a son of a bitch."

Reginald knew that there were a lot of things that could be done with rock salt, even on a human and the Winchesters were masters of using that particular item. He also knew that Winchester had picked that particular item out of his arsenal because most of their obvious staff was Valnargs and rock salt killed Valnargs, painfully and slowly, and once started there was nothing that could stop it.

John waited until he was sure the demon had gotten the message before leaving. He was aware of the fact that it wasn't wise to start a war on two fronts, but the demon was no where to be found after two months and these idiots needed to learn not to mess with his family.

Marcus had been watching the encounter from a corner of the bar and was furious. This man had just threatened to torture him to death in the worst possible way. This was war.

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"You were right Sam. They got their information there," John said as he sat down at the library table.

"Did you deliver our message?" Sam asked.

John thought that if the demon could have seen the look on his younger son's face it probably would have had a heart attack, if it had a heart that is. "Of course I did. There was a demon there," John gave Sam a description of the demon he had talked to. "I've never seen that species before. Find out what you can about it. I don't want to find out that it's about to bite us in the ass, especially if that's literal."

"I hope not, flesh eaters are nasty. I hate the way they stink and their homes are worse. Where would one live around here anyway?" Sam asked.

"What I want to know how this Blake managed to get to be a Master of so many demons."

Sam had already started his computer search for the demon species that John had described to him. "Dean's had some of his usual off the wall suggestions as to that one but the one I like is that the guy isn't really human at all or he's a half breed."

"Naw, I was watching him while I was in the bar. He's human." Sam didn't even bother to dispute that. His father was almost inhuman in his ability to spot demons and those who were part demon. Sam sometimes wondered if his dad had just a touch of psychic ability himself.

Dean came barreling into the library. "We got us another problem," he growled.

"What?" they asked concerned. Dean generally didn't get this hot unless someone died or there was a threat to his family.

"You know that caseworker? Miss Jedd? She's been poking around Dr. Jensen's office and the doc warned me. Apparently she hates demon hunters or something." He scrubbed his face with his hands. "I had Doc Jensen put in the twins' records about them being a Potential and a Witch. Has Willow found a teacher for Johnny yet?"

"Nothing that doesn't involve us or him moving away from here," Sam said.

"Has she checked out the Halliwells yet?"

"Yeah, it turns out that among witches the Halliwells are heavy hitters. The oldest three, Prue, Piper and Phoebe are known as the Charmed Ones. Together the three of them are the most powerful white witches in the world. Alone they rank right below Willow in power. Paige and Piper's kids are sort of a limbo. They have some of the powers of angels and some of the powers of witches. The only thing that most people can agree on is that because the Powers spent three hundred years making sure that when the Charmed Ones were born they'd be white witches that any half born that is born into that line will be powerful and most likely on the side of the light." Sam rattled the information off

"That's good; did anyone get their phone number?" Dean asked.

John and Sam both froze. Phone numbers were their business' life's blood. Without contact information, there was no way to call for help, supplies or information a Hunter might desperately need. They glanced at each other, desperately hoping that the other had gotten the number. Needless to say they could see that wasn't the case.

"Ah, give me a moment," Sam said, going back to his computer. "Willow said that they worked out of San Francisco. There can't be too many ladies with those names in a single city."

John was tempted to yell, but the fact was that he'd screwed up too. They really couldn't wait until Johnny cried for Paige just to find out her number. At least Sam was smart enough to figure out how to get it without calling for help. That would have been too humiliating. As it was Dean was glaring at them both and they deserved it. It was time for a distraction. "Other than the Intel on CPS, how did the check up go?"

"Good, Mary's out of her casts and the doc says she should be catching up to Johnny soon. He's right on target for what he should be doing. Mary's already trying to roll over and grab stuff. We need to get her sitting up and the doc gave me some mild exercises to do with her to strengthen her arms and legs." Dean rubbed his face. While there was only so far he could push himself as far as the 'normal' stuff that Sam was always going on about, he really did want to do what was best for his kids.

"That's good." John said as he waited.

"Here it is, it looks like all of them live in the same house. I guess it's one of those old mansion types," Sam said as he passed over the number to Dean.

"Thanks little bro," Dean said as he opened his cell.

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One of Marcus' main business' was information, both buying and selling. He knew that the Winchesters, especially John, had been tracking a specific demon for almost twenty years. He also knew that the demon was active and on the look out for infants of mystic abilities. He also knew exactly who that demon was and why he wanted the children. It would serve Winchester right to have Yknot destroy what was left of his family.

Yknot was the only 'child' of the First Evil and there was a prophecy that said when Yknot had gathered enough mystics on this plane of existence into his service, he would be able to use that power to make himself fully corporeal. Unlike his parent, Yknot was partially corporeal, but it took a tremendous amount of power for him to manifest. The only times he could do so was when a mystic child reached the age of six months (why Marcus wasn't sure) and during certain ceremonies when his followers were worshiping him.

Marcus knew that the twins had escaped Yknot's clutches and that he had taken his rage out on the mother. The Winchesters had prevented Yknot from claiming the twins and someone, most likely John Winchester, had prevented him from claiming Sam Winchester. Marcus also knew that Yknot wanted revenge on the Slayers. With a little information in the right ear, or other appendage, he could manipulate the situation to the satisfaction of all involved. Marcus would have to send for Yknot's followers to let him know what Marcus wanted him to know.

But still that would take time. For now, he had to do his best to make sure that Winchester was totally miserable; and the best way to do that was to 'encourage' Miss Jedd's paranoia about demon hunters and their wicked ways. The man was paranoid about his grandchildren's safety. He called in his secretary and had her pen a message asking Miss Jedd to the restaurant he owned. It wouldn't take much manipulation there; the human wasn't capable of following any sort of logic that he knew of. It was always so much easier to deal with the stupid ones.

That led him to another thought, Blake. What to do about his screw up that landed them in the hot seat with Winchester in the first place?


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I respect people who follow their convictions on such subjects as vegetarianism, animal rights, etc. Miss Jedd is not an attack on these people, I believe in much of what some of these people do. That being said, I can't stand people who don't use the brains that God gave them to really research and THINK about the consequences of these movements and their actions. Fanatics are even worse in my opinion. Miss Jedd IS a, I hope, humorous example of those who take things too far.

"Halliwell Manor, Phoebe speaking." Phoebe was the first one to reach the ringing phone. With such busy lives that the Halliwells and the interconnected members of their rapidly expanding family lived, there was no telling who could be on the phone. It could be anything from a work related matter, a magical crisis, a notification that an herb order had come in, or just a friend wanting to talk. It really was an example of Russian roulette.

"Hi Phoebe, this is Dean Winchester."

"Hi Dean, what's up?" Phoebe sat down on the chair next to the phone table. She really liked the man. He had been very unsettled by the revelation of his son's magical abilities, but he had been very accepting of them. That didn't always happen and she shoved the memories of the witch they had sheltered from her family out of her mind.

"I was hoping to take you up on your offer to teach Johnny. Willow can't find us a teacher that would allow him to stay here and I don't want to break up my family unless it's absolutely necessary." Dean couldn't hide the shudder that ran through his body at the idea of losing any member of his family, even if it was only to moving to another town.

"I can understand that," Phoebe said. "It's like that around here. You wouldn't believe how many times we've been asked to help out other witches around San Francisco. It's been really hectic ever since last spring."

"Yeah, Willow's having trouble finding witches who are willing to move into a Slayer House and they're having to keep them in the more active areas," Dean said. He had his phone to his ear and was holding Mary so she could sit up. She was so far behind everyone else her age because of the dual problems of being born two months premature and having to be in casts for so long that Dean was really worried about her. Even using light weight casts they had been too much for her to really do much with. He could see how happy she was to be sitting up and she kept lunging for the toys on the blanket in front of her. He was even more worried about her than he was Johnny. Johnny at least just needed a capable teacher for his magic. That was something he knew he could get. Mary needed things that he had no clue about.

"Just how quiet is Palo Alto?" Phoebe asked, an idea churning in her mind. If it was quiet enough, maybe Paige could orb the kids there when trouble came at them.

"Very quiet actually, the Kreeekk'ick demons were the first real trouble we've had in two months."

"Dean, I'd like to make a little deal with you."

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Dean was passed out in the recliner, one hand on Mary who was lying on his chest looking around and trying to push herself up and the other hand hung over the side close to the shotgun that Sam knew was leaning against the corner. Sam had little Johnny on the couch sitting on his chest and was watching his older brother with a sad little smile. "What's wrong?" Jess whispered, leaning over the back of the couch.

"Dean finally has too many people to mother in his life, not that he isn't trying. He's finally letting me go." Sam said as he gently played tug of war with a teething ring Johnny had in his mouth.

"What do you mean he's letting you go? And he's a daddy, not a mother, Sam." Jess said, standing up for Dean.

"Don't ever say this in front of Dad or Dean, but the truth is, Dean was my mom, Jess. Dad didn't know how to mother me, no matter how much I might needed it. But Dean had watched Mom do it for four years before she was killed." Sam sighed, wondering how to explain his situation to Jess. "It has been nineteen years. On that night Dad took me out of my crib and gave me to Dean." Sam looked up at his girlfriend, not noticing that Dean had woken up and was listening.

"He took me out of that burning house and he never really gave me back to Dad, not in his heart. He stepped up and took Mom's place in almost everything. Anything that he could do, no matter how hard it was for him, he did it. He changed my diapers; he made my bottles and fed me, he was the one who did most of the cooking as we got older. He wouldn't let any of the babysitters Dad hired get close to me, no matter what Dad said. He protected me from everything. I was the center of his life, now I'm not.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not jealous. I'm glad that he has Johnny, Mary and Hannah to look after. He needs to have someone to look after and I get pissed if he hovers over me too much these days." He laughed, "And I am never going to stop giving him Mother's Day cards. I'm just a little sad that he's finally letting me go but at the same time I'm so happy for him I could burst. He's the best parent in the world, Jess. I just hope that one day I can be as good as he is."

"What about last year? Didn't he let you go then? I know you weren't talking to either of them then."

"The fight I had with Dad had nothing to do with his not wanting to let me grow up, Jess. He was scared that I wouldn't have anyone to watch my back. He was scared to death that after guarding me for so long against so many monsters that one would finally get me because he wasn't there to stop them. Dean didn't take sides in that fight, but he still didn't let me go. Both of them swung through Palo Alto on a regular basis and checked up on me. And I mean that they really checked up on me. Do you remember what they did when picking out Dr. Jensen for the twins?"

Jess giggled as she nodded her head. It had been amusing to watch the Winchester men checking out the local pediatricians the same way they went about researching a Hunt. "Don't forget you were in on that little episode, Sam Winchester!"

"Where did you think I learned it?" Sam laughed. "Well, they did the same for me. I know that they checked everyone out around me, even you." Jess gave him a knowing look, remembering their little talk about his past girlfriends, one of whom at least, hadn't been human. "I know, I know, it isn't like I didn't deserve to have all of my girlfriends checked out. I'm just saying that while Dad was ready for me to grow up as long as he could still watch my back, Dean wasn't. But now, he's starting to and while it feels good, it also makes me a little sad."

Jess smiled, she had gone through that last year when she left for college. "I know Sam. Cutting the apron strings is never easy for anyone involved, parent or child. It sure wasn't for me and my mom. This has really helped Dean too I think. If he's been a parent from such a small age, learning to let go this way will really help him. He's got all the support he needs without having to let go all at once.

"Now, what are we going to do about Thanksgiving and Christmas?" she asked changing the subject. "Thanksgiving is only three weeks away, and Christmas comes on really fast after that." Jess didn't want Sam to dwell on the situation, mostly because there wasn't anything that could be done about it. What would be, would be. There wasn't anything anyone could do about growing up.

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Miss Veronica Jedd hated people who couldn't understand that everyone and everything had a right to live. She was a confirmed vegetarian, a member of PETA and did her best to live by her convictions, both at her home and at her work. She did not wear any animal products, nor did she use any. All of her personal care products were organic and made without animal testing. She was the perfect example of someone who took the sanctity of all life seriously. Why she even regarded demonic life to be sacred, and the thought of those two little innocent babies being raised by a murderer had her in a state.

If that wasn't bad enough the man had the gall to bring even more murderers into the household, not just those killers he had to call family. Oh, she knew the company line, Slayers weren't murderers, and they only killed demons that were a danger to humans. As if that made everything better! They were still murderers! She tried to calm herself. The only way she could do her job and inspect the household of Dean Winchester with an eye towards getting those precious children out of there in one piece was to be calm and analytical.

It really helped that she had met with that nice demon over at the restaurant. He'd given her a list of what was harmful to demons and the tortures that these so called Hunters used them in. She was sure she would find lots of instruments of torture around the house and not just those used on demons either. How could anyone not see that these men were dangerous not only to demons, but to regular people as well? Well, that was about to change now. She would rescue those poor babies, and expose these murderers as well.


	5. Chapter 5

The inspection wasn't going well. All three of the Winchester's knew that all the woman had to do on her first visit was to make sure that there was food in the house for the twins and that each twin had a bed to sleep in and that they weren't being obviously abused. After all, this wasn't the first home inspection they'd been through. John couldn't count the number of times he'd had to do a walk through with some well meaning person from CPS, most of whom were convinced that John was scum.

There was no question in their minds that Miss Jedd was seriously abusing her position and that there wasn't a thing they could do about it. All they could hope was that the girl following her around was being as accurate as possible as she wrote stuff down. Other wise there was no telling what the bitch might say. There was no need for her to inspect every inch of the house, from the nursery all the way down to the armory. That one she was pissed that she couldn't get into. "That's locked up for the twin's protection," Dean had smiled. The smile was forced but Dean had been a con man long enough that she had no idea. "We keep most of our backup weapons there."

John had been curbing the impulse to take the family and run from the moment he had seen her. From her recycled sandals (that she could only get away with wearing because this was California and the weather was rarely bad) to her expensive organic cotton and hemp clothes and the way her hair was braided down her back he could tell that this was lady was one of the idiots that wouldn't allow for a family's circumstances. That type hadn't when the boys were younger and it didn't look like it had changed any over the years.

The last one he had dealt with had freaked over the fact that they boys had been eating spaghettioes and freshly caught rabbits. Hell, he had bought food from the store when he could and hunted and foraged for the rest when he couldn't. It was simple economics. When he'd had the money he bought food, when he didn't, he hunted and foraged for it. It hadn't escaped his notice that most of the cheapest foods back then had fallen into two categories, healthy and sugar. His boys had been healthy, a lot healthier than most of their peers to be honest, although he had gone for the commercial stuff for when Dean had to cook for both of the boys while he was on a hunt.

It wasn't wise to trust Dean with cooking anything that really needed cooking in a kitchen. He had taken care of all of the camp cooking and when they had a kitchen John had made sure that all Dean had needed to do was heat stuff up, or cook the stuff that came out of a box. Why Dean couldn't master using a kitchen to do more than make mac'n'cheese was beyond John. But he had seen the disasters first hand.

Sam on the other hand, had really surprised John. While he had thought that Sam was eating out of the school cafeteria, it turned out that Sam had been learning how to cook. Where Dean was an accident waiting to happen, Sam could pass himself off as an accomplished chef. John had eaten more and better meals since they had moved in here than he had since Mary had died. Sam had turned bright red when he had been voted Kitchen Master by the rest of the house. Even Dean was singing his praises and not bothering to hide it behind his usual 'don't let the little brother get the upper hand' bantering.

"I see the rest of the weapons aren't locked up!" Miss Jedd glared. Her voice, a nasty frumpy screech, that reminded John of his old third grade teacher, jolted him back to the present.

"Those weapons are out of the reach of anyone under six feet tall," John said flatly. "I doubt that you can reach them. The twins certainly can't. Everyone else in this house knows exactly how to use those weapons and how not to hurt themselves with them."

"Humph," Miss Jedd snorted. "I suppose you are going to tell me that isn't dangerous either?" She pointed at the heavy layer of salt running across the front door entrance.

"It's salt." Dean wasn't about to let that one go. "Once they get to crawling the twins will learn to stay out of it the same way Sam did. Tasting a handful once will convince them not to do it again. That is for their protection and ours. Don't you dare tell me I'm not allowed to protect my children from what's out there!"

"If you weren't demon hunters you wouldn't need protection!" and with that she marched out the front door. Her assistant, really a trainee, winked at the men as she followed. She was lucky, and to be honest so were the Winchesters, that she had chosen that moment to leave. She had to know their family history, it was written up in the reports on their background. And to tell them, three people who had been nothing but an ordinary blue collar family, that if they weren't demon hunters there was nothing to fear in the dark was more than they could take. Not after the way they had lost Mary Winchester.

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"What's wrong Hannah?" Grace asked. Grace was a member of Hannah and Jordan's English 101 study group and had gotten to know the quiet Slayer rather well over the last few months.

Hannah looked up from her laptop. "I'm ok Grace; it's just the DHM's obituary column.

"What?" Grace asked confused.

"Demon Hunters Monthly, I know it's a stupid name, but Dean mouthed off to someone, somewhere and then someone thought it was a good idea. It's a monthly newsletter and it has everything from tips to articles on what is the best ammo for certain hunts to a 'who's hurt and who's dead' list. I don't know anyone on this month's list personally but there are a few names I recognize." Hannah waved at the computer screen. "I know I shouldn't be reading this especially right now but Dean and the guys are having that home inspection today. This is the second one and the second caseworker they've had. Someone put in a complaint that the last one was so infatuated by the fact that the guys are famous that CPS was letting stuff slide. So they went and put a real nasty paper pusher on our case."

"They aren't going to take the twins away are they?" Grace asked horrified. She had gotten to know the Winchester twins and their dad through Hannah and thought that Dean made a wonderful dad.

"I sure hope not. Both of the twins are already involved in our world whether anyone likes it or not. They have to be protected even more than Sam does and he's a Seer. Seers are like the top ten most wanted in the demonic world. Take out the early warning system and you get the upper hand, so everything goes after Sam."

The other girls seated at the library table leaned in as Hannah was talking. She didn't say much about her night job, although Jordan was more forth coming. "Why do you say that Hannah?" Isabel asked.

"Johnny is a witch. He's one of the natural born, that is people who have the ability to use magic from before birth. I remember his teacher telling me a story about how when her mother was pregnant with her she gave her mother premonitions about a group of warlocks who were about to attack her family. Phoebe's magic power is the power of premonitions, rather like being a Seer, only it is through her magic rather than like a regular Seer who has no other ability.

"Mary is a Potential, that's what you call a girl who is going to be a Slayer. So you see, even if some judge does take the twins away they will still end up in the family business. But this new case worker is a real dragon from what we've been hearing. The guys have kept us out of most of it." Hannah ended glumly. She really wanted to help if she could. The twins were adorable and Dean was a great dad and a wonderful Watcher.

Jordan reached over and patted Hannah's hand. "We've done all we can. Now we need to wait and see."

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Phoebe Halliwell, Charmed One, newspaper columnist and currently daycare provider for a small group of toddler witches looked over the sleeping group of babies and was ready to turn whoever that woman was into a toad. The three babies in the crib were her six month old nephew and the eight month old Winchester twins. The four year old on the floor in her sleeping bag was her niece Amber and the three year old next to her was her best friend Elizabeth, another natural born.

Elizabeth's father was a widower who had no clue about how to raise a witch, being a normal human himself, so he had been overwhelmed with joy when Piper had asked if it was alright if Elizabeth had joined in the small day care her sister was starting. The other two on the floor in sleeping bags were her nephew Wyatt, who was two and his best friend Joey, also another natural born and two years old. Joey parents were both witches who Phoebe had business dealings with. They ran a magic shop and while the shop had protections on it, it wasn't the best place for a two year old, especially when they had customers.

She knew that the woman was Dean's caseworker, but she'd dealt with caseworkers before. She had met quite a few of them through her sister Paige and none of them had been like that old dragon. So she sat there in front of her computer and debated the consequences of turning her into various animals and such. Too bad none of the results appealed to her. This caseworker was a normal human and despite the trouble she was stirring up hadn't done anything really wrong. Plus there was the fact that she wasn't supposed to punish people, just vanquish demons and defend the innocent.

'Of course, Johnny and Mary were innocents and if they were to be taken from their father would be placed in danger,' Phoebe thought. It was a very fine line but one she might have to tread if that woman got out of line. Phoebe saved the article she was working on and began to make a list of what would be appropriate if that woman crossed the line.


	6. Chapter 6

It had been two weeks of hell. Two weeks of sitting in a jail cell for the crime of protecting his children. For nearly a week the hellbitch disguised as a caseworker had made daily unannounced inspections. When conditions did not 'improve' to her satisfaction she'd tried to take the twins. She had not succeeded because when she had dragged Johnny out of his grandfather's arms Johnny had screamed, terrified. That had brought Paige, who had orbed both of the children and herself out of the Slayer House. She had known what was going on because Phoebe had told her all about the scene she had seen. The two cops Miss Judd had brought with her had arrested Dean when he had refused to say where the children had been taken.

The truth was Dean didn't know where Paige had had taken the twins. That was why his two week jail stint was so comparable to hell. No one had been allowed to visit him and his one phone call had gone to the Watcher's Council so he could get a lawyer. He couldn't call Paige the way Johnny did and John and Sam had refused to tell his lawyer what Paige's number was so he couldn't get a hold of Paige either. No one wanted to risk the twins safety. To make matters worse, he had been brought in front of the family court judge in the orange jumpsuit and chains of a criminal. This was not the way he wanted to show up but the smirk on the hellbitch's face made sure that he knew who was behind it. All of this should have had him foaming at the mouth.

But while his lawyer didn't know how to contact Paige, he did know Hunters. And by explaining things in those terms Tyler Ward had gotten not only cooperation from Dean but also a ton of detailed information from John and Sam. John had given him details about Miss Jedd and her addenda that Tyler didn't think anyone would have guessed he had figured out. Sam had given him a rap sheet on the woman that would have made the CIA proud. Between the three of them there wasn't a single move that hadn't been thought of; including making Dean look like a criminal to the judge.

"All rise for the honorable Judge Wilkins," the bailiff called. Dean rose with everyone else. The courtroom was filled but there were no reporters present. They had been locked out on Judge Amy Wilkins orders. She was not about to put up with a circus in her courtroom. Dean tuned out most of what was basically the opening ceremonies of a hearing/trial and waited patiently for the time to verbally kill the hellbitch and get his children back.

Miss Jedd presented her 'case' which basically boiled down to her prejudice against his job and those he worked with. She detailed the weapons he had 'lying all over the establishment', the salt he had where the babies could crawl right into it and poison themselves, the lack of solid baby food in the kitchen (Dean rolled his eyes at that one. Sam made the twins baby food at the same time he cooked for the rest of them and you couldn't get better than fresh baby food) and both the lack of a trained childcare provider and the disreputable associates he had brought into the building which was NOT a suitable home. He was also currently residing in jail as he had kidnapped the children and repeated refused to hand them over to the authorities so they could be placed in a proper home.

"Mr. Winchester, I'm going to direct most of my questions directly to you as these matters appear to be in your direct control. If that is alright with you Mr. Ward?" Judge Wilkins asked.

"Of course you honor. We wish this matter to be settled as quickly as possible."

"Yes ma'am." Dean said.

"Let's deal with the most serious charge first. Mr. Winchester, where are John Samuel Winchester and Mary Samantha Winchester right now?" she demanded.

"Your honor, I don't know. I had nothing to do with not turning over Johnny and Mary to the police officers who attempted to take them." Dean's answer was short and to the point.

"What do you know?" the judge asked shrewdly. The man was too calm not to have some idea of where his children were taken.

"I know that Johnny was scared and screaming when Miss Jedd forcibly removed him from my father's arms. I know that was what called his white lighter to him and I know that she took him and his sister to safety somewhere. Wherever it is she has them they're safe until his white lighter is sure that it is safe to bring them home."

That hadn't been what she had been expecting. A smart aleck remark or a refusal to answer was the usual pattern in parental kidnappings. "What is a white lighter?" Judge Wilkins asked.

"Paige now," whispered Leo from the back of the courtroom.

"That would be me your honor," Paige said as she orbed in carrying both babies. "While I normally wouldn't interfere with removing a child from his or her home by Child Protective Serves, placing Johnny in the foster home that was selected would have placed him and his sister in deadly peril with no chance of defense. I couldn't allow that to happen." Paige stood before the judge's bench in the formal white robes of her calling. "As for what a white lighter is; we are guardian angels for natural born witches. Johnny is my charge and if I was going to rescue him I needed to rescue his sister as well."

Judge Wilkins gapped at the young woman standing before her for a moment and then seemed to recall just where she was. "You wouldn't have interfered normally? Could you explain a little better why you did?"

"Your honor, where a witch resides is not a matter that concerns a white lighter. Nor should they interfere with people who are attempting to protect their charges. However, Johnny Winchester and his sister have already survived two demonic attacks in the last four months. Miss Jedd was about to place them in a foster home where the foster parents are a species of demons. She did not do as through a check as she should have. That particular race of demons worships the demonic entity that attempted to kill the Winchester family nineteen years ago and did succeed in killing the twin's grandmother. If she had not chosen to try and give them to a demonic family or she had given human foster parents the relevant information that the twins are targets for supernatural threats I would not have taken the children."

"MAH!" Mary said sternly. Johnny just burbled at the pretty ladies.

"I see," the judge said. "Well that certainly was a good reason to take them. A demonic foster family certainly isn't a good placement for children of demon hunters." If Dean didn't know better he would have called the judge's tone snarky. On the other hand, if he didn't know snarky who did? "Mr. Winchester, let's go on to the next concern, that of the twins having access to dangerous weapons."

"Your honor while we do have multiple weapons around the Slayer House; at no time did the twins have access to them. Every weapon that was not locked up in the armory was secured on the walls at a height of six and a half feet above the floor or was carried by a person who is well educated in both their use and all safety concerns." Tyler Ward handed a file folder to the bailiff who handed it in turn to the judge. The file contained not only pictures of how the weapons were secured but also a copy of Miss Jedd's own assistant's notes on the subject.

The judge poured over the pictures and documents comparing the two. "Miss Jedd, these weapons appear to be properly secured and I see nothing wrong with having weapons around children as long as the proper precautions are taken. I'm throwing this charge out and I believe your next objection was large amounts of salt on the ground.

"Mr. Winchester, while I do not believe that any child, even one as small as the twins are would willingly eat enough straight salt to harm them, it is a safety issue. Why do you have the salt on the ground?"

"Salt across doorways and windows provide a barrier that low level demons and spirits cannot cross. It is a preventative measure to ensure the safety of those living in the home and I plan on teaching the twins not to get into the salt the same way my father taught myself and my brother, your honor. Plus with as many adults as we have living at the house, there is always someone to watch and make sure that they don't get into it." Dean said matter of factly. Inside he was cheering as each and every objection was shot down.

"What about the lack of baby food?" That was the last real problem that the judge could see.

"Your honor, the twins were two months premature plus they suffered from pretty severe neglect from their mother. Because of this Dr. Jensen, their pediatrician wanted us to take things very slowly when it came to introducing solid foods. The only things they've had have been rice cereal, and my brother's homemade applesauce, peas and green beans. Sam makes their food from scratch so they get the best nutrition. They are still on formula for the most part and I have four cases stocked in the pantry." Tyler handed yet another file to the bailiff.

"They tried carrots and bananas too the last two weeks," Paige said. "They really liked the bananas." She paused, "You might want to keep a fire extinguisher nearby when you give Johnny bananas. He REALLY likes them."

"He has an active power already?" Dean knew from the lessons that Phoebe had been giving him that strong emotions were the key of a natural born witches powers. "Cool, hey Sam, give me something to write with. We're going to need to plan what we need to fire proof besides their stuff." Dean was fast buried in a discussion with his brother on how to deal with the emergence of Johnny's first active power. It was Willow's opinion that he would have more than one. Judge Wilkins watched amazed at the amount of detail the young men were going over in their plan to make sure that Johnny was properly taken care of in a supportive fashion that she was more used to seeing in the parents of her daughter's best friend who was an Olympic hopeful.


	7. Chapter 7

Judge Amy Wilkins turned back to the Winchester's lawyer. She still had to get this hearing back on track. "Mr. Ward, do you have any documentation regarding the doctor's orders about the children's diets?"

"Yes I do your honor and Dr. Jensen is here as well." The doctor wasn't the only person who was here supporting Dean in trying to keep the twins. Phoebe and Leo were there as well as Jordan, Hannah, Jess, John and John's old business partner Mike. They had packed the little courtroom. Tyler handed the medical file to the bailiff and Dr. Jensen went and stood beside Paige who was offering suggestions to Dean and Sam about the sort of precautions they needed to take with Johnny's power.

Judge Wilkins quickly found the relevant information in the medical files as well as something she hadn't expected to find, the notations dated just over three weeks earlier about the twins being a witch and a Potential. "Dr. Jensen, I see that both children have significantly improved health wise in the last three months. The diets that you recommended are documented but could you explain why there is a notation about Johnny being a witch and Mary being a Potential? And just what is a Potential?"

"On Oct. 30, I saw both Johnny and Mary Winchester. Mary was scheduled to have her casts removed, but both children had been the focus of a demonic attack the night before and their father wanted me to make certain that they hadn't been injured. Both children were fine. I noted the information on the reason for the attack mostly due to the chance that the information would be needed at a later date. As a witch, especially an innocent one, Johnny will be subject to demonic attack as certain types of demons will want to steal his magic. Potential is the term used for girls who will become Slayers when they turn fifteen. Potentials are also targets of certain types of demons, both for the mystical power that is inherent in their calling and as a chance at a preemptive strike against an enemy. If either child is injured due to demonic attack that needs to be verified so that the authorities know who is responsible for the injury." Dr. Jensen had done her research. She wasn't about to let Mr. Winchester take the fall for something he couldn't help.

Miss Jedd gasped and turned white. That little baby would become a Slayer? She had to put a stop to this! "And just who is it that decided that she would become a killer?" she demanded.

Leo sighed, 'Why me?' he thought. But he followed the instructions he had just received from the Elders. He orbed over to stand right in front of Miss Judd. Just like Paige he appeared wearing his formal robes. "Why do you ask questions that you already have the answers too?" he asked her gently.

"What do you mean YOU!?!?!" she spluttered.

"I am a white lighter; a guardian angel just as Paige is. I was chosen by the Elders for this calling because I had lived a good life helping others before my death. And just as the Elders called me, so to Slayers are called to be Slayers by the Powers That Be. They are chosen for this life before they are born. You have been told the truth repeatedly but you refuse to listen. This is your last chance, Veronica. Please listen and learn. If you continue on this path you will face dire consequences." With a final sad look he orbed away. He hoped that she would take his advice although he doubted it. She was a fanatic and those types were dreadfully hard to nudge onto the proper path. Most never deviated from their chosen course, and to make matters worse he wouldn't be able to be there for the rest of the hearing! He just hoped that Paige and Phoebe remembered everything that happened.

"Thank you doctor," the judge said shakily. She had to get this hearing back on track but she was going straight to church when she got off work. It wasn't everyday not one but TWO guardian angels appeared in her courtroom, much less delivered warnings! "Could anyone explain to me about the daycare provider that is the next point of contention?" she asked, looking a little lost.

John was sitting next to his friend Mike, who had offered to testify for Dean and trying to stifle his chuckles. 'Trust my boys to turn your courtroom into a circus no matter how hard you try judge,' he thought. "OH, that's me!" Phoebe said and jumped up from where she was sitting to hurry to the front of the courtroom. "My name is Phoebe Halliwell, your honor and I'm not exactly a daycare provider. You see, although the children I watch are very small they are all natural born witches with the exception of Mary. I'm more their ethics of magic teacher than anything else. I work with them to discover what their personal powers are, like we just found out that Johnny's power is pyrokinesis. And from there I basically teach them when it is ok to use their powers and magic and when it isn't."

"You teach them ethics?" the judge asked shocked and looked over to see Johnny grinning at her. "But they're so young!"

"That's the best time to start, your honor. A child raised with the knowledge and awareness of what can and does happen when you use magic and even more importantly, sees that you, when using your own magic, don't deviate from the proper path is far less likely to become a warlock than a child raised without that knowledge."

Judge Wilkins may have seen a young woman standing in front of her but Phoebe Halliwell's eyes were old and experienced. She wondered what this young woman had seen in the course of her life to have aged her so. Miss Halliwell was right. How many times had she see child after child come through her courtroom hurt by the world and the people who should be caring for them until the damage was too great to be mended? A child raised in the light was far, far less likely to turn to the darkness. "Thank you Miss Halliwell. Miss Jedd, going by your previous comments, it seems obvious to me that the associates that you object to are those involved in demon hunting in one fashion or another; unless you have proof that the Winchesters are bringing in hookers and having orgies in front of the children, I'm throwing that out."

Judge Wilkins stared at the flustered and obviously embarrassed case worker. "I thought not. The last item on the list is the suitability of the Palo Alto Slayer House as a home for small children." She looked at the files on the bench in front of her and pulled out the pictures that showed not only how the weapons on the walls were secured but the entire room as well to show just how far up on the walls they were. She examined all of them again closely, this time looking at the rooms instead of the weapons. The pictures showed a pleasant and colorful building that in no way screamed to her of an institution. Instead, it looked very much like the college sorority house where she had lived for several years as a college student. As she recalled it had been a wonderful place to live while she was stretching her wings.

She noted the changes that had been made to make the house child proof. Well ahead of schedule there were baby gates at the top and bottom of the stairs, although she was certain that all of the Winchester men could just step right over them as tall as they were. There was nothing on the shelves from three feet in height and down but baby stuff; blankets, stuffed animals and the like. All of the electirical sockets were covered. Heck, even the garbage was secured against little hands. "I see nothing here that isn't appropriate for a home Miss Jedd. It is already prepared for when the twins are toddlers and it looks very much like a large home to me. Mr. Winchester," she waited for John and Tyler to get Dean's attention.

"Yes ma'am. Sorry about that," Dean said. Tyler urged him to his feet so that Judge Wilkins could render her verdict.

"I'm throwing the case against you out. You have proven to be a very dedicated father who is taking both your work and your children's unique abilities into account. You are supplying all of their needs both physical and supernatural. You have enrolled Johnny in a Witch's daycare and Mary has Slayers to look up to, both from a very early age. Quite frankly Mr. Winchester, you remind me of my daughter's best friend's parents. She's an Olympic hopeful and like them you are trying to give your children every advantage possible for what you know is ahead of them. Keep up the good work, Mr. Winchester. Court adjourned." The judge banged her gavel and the small crowd in the courtroom cheered as Paige orbed the chains off of Dean. That is, everyone but Miss Jedd, she stormed out of the courtroom while everyone else was planning a party. "I'm gonna have to have a talk with her supervisor," Amy Wilkins muttered to herself.


	8. Chapter 8

'They couldn't have been REAL Angels!' Miss Jedd argued with herself. It had to have been a trick those witches produced with their magic. God couldn't want that sweet little baby girl to grow up to become a murderer!' She sat in her car undecided about what to do. Deep down in her soul she knew that Leo was a real angel but to admit it would be to admit that some things really needed to die, something that every fiber of her being rebelled against. Unable to come to a decision on the main issue, she finally started her car and headed off to the restaurant where she had met Marcus. It had a bar and right now she could really use a drink.

A few hours later Marcus sat as a very drunken Miss Jedd poured her tale of woe out and sobbed on his nonexistent shoulder. 'So,' he thought. 'The children are protected by both White Lighters and the Charmed Ones. Well, I know better than to go up against them. They could turn me into a puddle without breaking a sweat. Pitting yourself against a Hunting family is one thing; going up against a White Lighter is something else again.' He looked over the soused woman in tears next to him. 'Well she's useless to me now. At least she got the Winchesters out of my fringes for a few weeks. Now, what to do about her.'

A moment later he started laughing. He had the perfect ending for such an annoying human. He waved over one of his human employees. It wouldn't do to have one of his demons do this little chore. "Make sure she gets home safe." He then turned to Miss Jedd, "Don't you worry my dear. I'll take care of everything. I do hope you can do me one small favor though. Would you mind fixing a dinner for a friend of mine?"

"Of course not! You've been so good to me!" she babbled as the human led her away to a taxi.

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Thanksgiving dinner (and celebration of Dean's permanent custody of the twins) at the Slayer house was interrupted by the local police. A Detective Scott stood in front of the assembled group who were lazing around after a truly enormous meal cooked by Jess and Sam. "Mr. Winchester," he said to John, "there's been a demon attack and a woman is dead. I was hoping that you could spare someone to identify the demon we have in custody and tell us if it could be the one responsible?" Detective Scott wasn't ashamed to admit this wasn't his area of expertise. The Winchesters were the local experts and he really did have to call them in. He just really didn't want to do it.

Not because he didn't like them or anything; it was just that if he didn't really watch himself and gave away the identity of the victim there would be a huge conflict of interest for the Winchesters. He hated to have to put them in that situation the first time the police had to ask for their help. Everyone on the force knew that the victim, Miss Veronica Jedd, was the one responsible for Dean Winchester's recent jail stint. If it wasn't for the fact that they were honest cops they'd be looking the other way and giving this demon a pass. But they were honest cops and so they had to do their best to see if this demon was the one responsible for the Judd woman's death, no matter how obvious it was. They had practically caught the thing red handed.

"Sam, you're the best at demon identification. Take Jess with you. She needs the experience and you can teach her what to look for," John said. He didn't wasn't to send Dean out. Dean needed to spend as much time as possible with the twins after spending two weeks in jail and what he had told Sam was true. Sam was the best in the family when it came to the identifying demons part of the job and Jess did need more hands on experience. "Dean, can Hannah go with them?" he asked. He wanted them to have more backup than a bunch of cops who didn't know what they were doing.

"Dad, with all due respect sir, she's already gone to get her patrol weapons." There was no way he was going to let Sam and Jess go without reinforcements. "With Jordan at her folks for the weekend Hannah's the only Slayer we have right now. She's not going to let a homicidal demon anywhere near the family without her being there." He turned to the detective. "If this demon killed your victim Hannah will take care of it for you."

"Thank you, I don't want to put the blame on the wrong demon."

One Hour Later

"It killed a human all right," Sam said after a few seconds of looking at the bloated figure in the cell. It had a vaguely humanoid shape with a squat stretched out head and flippered feet. Its tongue was actively rolling something white around in its fang filled, lipless mouth.

"Are you sure?" one of the uniforms guarding the cell asked. He had signed up for a class over at the university in their new Demon program. He knew that the department would need cops with that sort of learning and the sooner the better. It was one of the reasons he had volunteered to guard the demon.

"Toormalcls are flesh eaters; that's why this one stinks so badly. They continue to eat meat no matter how badly it's decomposed. Normally they don't eat humans but you can tell this one has because first of all, it's blitzed out so bad from sheer gluttony. Now, it could have found a deer or raided a supermarket but it would have had to share a deer and you would have gotten a report if it had raided a store. Also, there are quite a few humans around here that follow a strict enough vegetarian diet that they would be edible. Toormalcls won't eat omnivores or carnivores. Consumption of any kind of meat in any amount taints the taste. That's why they are considered to be a mostly neutral species. That classification won't stop them from eating a human if they think someone is tasty enough though."

The cops looked at each other and Jess could hear one whisper behind her, "Dinner's on me, steak all around." She tried to keep her grin to herself. That was the right attitude when dealing with this kind of demon.

"The clincher is the human finger bone it's still got in its mouth though." Sam reached right into the cell and into the demon's mouth to retrieve the bone. He completely ignored the gasps of shock around him but even he couldn't ignore Hannah's slapping him upside the head. "Hannah, stop it! I already said it won't eat anyone who eats meat, see?" He pointed at the demon that was now making faces and trying to scrub its mouth out. "Was your victim a strict vegetarian Det. Scott?"

"Yes, she was and we found it in her dinning room. There were two places set for dinner. Do you think there was another victim? We couldn't find any remains but hers we think." The uniforms that had been on the scene had been very vocal about hoping there was only one victim. Det. Scott agreed with them. The scene had been horrific.

"No, judging by the bulge I'd say it only ate one human, and either she was on the small side or it left more pieces behind than usual." Sam was sure of that. He and his family had taken out a group of three of these demons several years ago.

"There were just enough remains to get an id on the victim," Det. Scott said, swallowing to help settle his stomach. He really didn't want to picture the scene again.

"Then you only have one victim detective. Usually they don't leave that much behind," Sam said as he stepped away from the cell. He handed the finger bone over. "Do you have a way to dispose of the demon once Hannah kills it?"

"Salt and burn the body, correct?"

"That's for human remains. For a demon cremation alone is generally enough." Sam waited and was surprised when no one objected to having Hannah kill the demon. 'Of course the fact that the thing can barely move and Hannah is a Slayer is probably why no one is objecting,' Sam thought.

"We'll handle it. I'm sure the bomb squad will have something we can use," Det. Scott said.

"Ok, Hannah, its all yours." Sam said and stepped back from the cell.

Hannah opened the cell, and taking her short sword (which wasn't so short for her) she swiftly decapitated the demon and then handed its head to the uniform standing closest to her. "Can we get back to the party now? I want to see Dean open his presents." Hannah had been knitting like crazy, both as a stress relief and so that when Dean did get permanent custody of the twins she could have something to show how glad she was for her Watcher.

Back at the Slayer house everyone had piled presents on Dean and the twins. John was helping Johnny unwrap his presents and Sam was helping Mary unwrap hers. Johnny really didn't seem to get the idea, but Mary was taking to ripping the paper with glee, not that she was very good at it.

Dean was surrounded by everything from a new music system (complete with all of his favorite music transferred to CD's) to a family travel guide to Disneyland, complete with tickets. The look that Dean had shot Sam when he had opened the Disneyland package had Sam in stitches. Sam knew that the idea of actually setting foot inside 'the happiest place on earth' was enough to have Dean climbing the walls in horror but the twins loved Disney. He and Jess had made sure of it. He and Dean had never gone as children so when he was on his own he had made a day trip. It was perfect for the twins and he was determined that they would have the chance to go as often as he could manage.

He also wanted to see his dad and brother there. They both needed to lighten up and Disneyland would appeal to both of them with the thrill rides. Yes, hunting was a bigger thrill but neither of them were adrenalin junkies. They did their jobs because people would die if they didn't. This should give them the thrill without the danger.

Hannah was pleased with her gifts as well. She had gotten a very special yarn through the Charmed One's magical sources. It was silk blended with a material called spider's silk. Hannah didn't know if it actually was spider's silk, but the effect was awesome. Items made from this yarn were able to act as personal armor, protecting from both magical and physical attacks. It was very expensive, but she had felt that the price was well worth the use to which she had put it. Johnny had a sweater and pants and Mary had a sweater, jumper and tights. She had made a sweater for Dean as well and she had told him that she was making a pair of pants too, but she needed measurements.

Dean wasn't too sure about what kind of measurements Hannah needed but he was more than pleased with the protections Hannah had made for his children. Too bad it meant that they made a trip to Disneyland a possibility. He would have liked to be able to tell Sam that it was too dangerous. As it was, he was going to have to go through with the trip.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

'Disneyland, could Sam have picked a worse place for a family trip?' Dean thought with disgust. No guns were allowed in 'the friendliest place on earth'; something that made him twitch. The last time Sam had disarmed him was in Vegas. That had all worked out but he still saw Mary flying through the air in his nightmares. That was much scarier then any other nightmare he'd ever had.

He checked over the contents of the twins' gym bag one more time. It was a large black gym bag, not a diaper bag, similar in every way except color to the one he used to haul his hunting equipment. That one was G.I. green. Dean refused to touch one of those pastel monstrosities. Diapers, check; formula, check; bottles, check; holy water squirt gun, (Dean thought that Xander had a really good idea now and then) check; rock salt hand grenades, check; extra clothes and bibs, check; fire extinguisher, check; toys, (including a totally kicking tiger for Johnny and a black teddy bear in a pink sundress for Mary) check; Dean racked his brain he just knew he was forgetting something. A box of baby wipes and a bottle of powder dropped down onto the changing table next to the bag. He turned his head to see Phoebe's grin.

"It's always the most obvious things you forget isn't it?" she asked. She hefted her own diaper bag higher onto her shoulder. "I'm on back up duty today so if you need help with the twins give me a yell. Leo and Piper have Chris and Wyatt and Prue and Andy have Amber. Trust me; be grateful that they have Amber. She's Disney Princess crazy right now and she's determined to see every Princess themed thing there today. And I just know she's going to make sure that she gets at least half a dozen rides on 'It's a small world'."

"Stick with us then, cause there is no way in hell I'm getting anywhere near there!" Dean shuddered. His daughter was never, under any circumstances, going the spoiled princess route. Her heroes weren't going to be girls who couldn't kick ass and had no brains. He had let Sam and Jess get away with the cute little animals that made Dean want to gag, but the minute one of those idiot princess' made an appearance he was going to shoot it.

He'd already shot the Pooh Bear someone had the audacity to leave in Johnny's crib. Dean smiled remembering the stuffed animal tied to a target with a blindfold over its eyes. He only wished he could have given the thing a cigarette before he'd literally blown the stuffing out of it. No one was giving HIS son a gay bear! No matter what Sam said, Pooh was gay and that's all there was to it. Johnny was already making good progress with learning how to charm women and he wasn't having anything set back his education.

Dean packed the wipes and powder and then slung the bag up onto his shoulder. "So where's Paige today? She deserves to celebrate too. That is if you can call the sheer torture we're about to experience celebrating."

Phoebe grinned at the exaggerated shudder that Dean gave. "She's got to work. One of her charges called. I don't know the details but she said she didn't need our help and we were to go have fun without her. If I didn't know better I'd swear she was hiding a boyfriend on us."

"A boyfriend, work, who cares? She's getting out of this little trip through hell." Dean said as he held the door for Phoebe.

"Dean, it's not going to be that bad," Sam said exasperated once more at his older brother. Dean's loud and frequent announcements of being allergic to normal had subsided quite a bit after the event of the twins coming into their lives but he was still being a jackass about a lot of things. Sam still couldn't believe that Dean had staged a military execution for a stuffed animal.

"Sam, its Disneyland," Dean drew the name out as he went to check on the twins. "That alone means I'm going to be begging to be shot before an hour is up." The twins were sitting, with some support from Grandpa John for Mary, on the twin's blanket in the living room of their hotel suite. Johnny saw Dean and lunged forward.

"Whoa there little guy!" Jordan said as she scooped him up before his chin could hit the floor. While Johnny was making good progress in learning how to crawl, he hadn't managed to learn how to go from a sitting position to a crawl in a single quick move. "Daddy's not going anywhere without you."

"Of course not," Dean said as he took Johnny from Jordan, "We're a family and where one goes, we all go. Well, within reason anyway."

John had decided that everyone was going to Disneyland. Not only would it be cruel to send Dean alone with the twins, he wasn't sure that Dean would actually go if the rest of them didn't go along. He hadn't said anything but this wasn't Dean's first trip to Disneyland, he and Mary had taken him when he was two years old on a family vacation. As an experienced parent (even if some would say he'd been a terrible one) he knew just how excited small children could get when faced with a full sized favorite character that they could touch. He just hoped that having an experienced witch along with each child would alleviate the amount of damage they could cause. He had also known better than to drag toddlers on an all day excursion without have a quiet fallback point to retreat to for nap time thus, the hotel suite.

When Leo and Andy had orbed the Halliwell family into the main room that morning, they had told him that Paige was unable to come because one of her charges needed her. So, John had called Willow and invited her to join them. It had also turned out that Xander had begged to come along as well, not so much to see Disneyland as it was a preferable escape from having to spend his time either with Andrew in the kitchen or Giles in his office reading Watcher reports. When Willow had explained that, John hadn't had the heart to turn Xander away. It was hard enough trying to write one report a week, he didn't want to imagine having to sit down and spend all day reading hundreds of them and then trying to explain them to Rupert Giles.

With five car seats taking up the backseats of the Impala and Sam's little car, most of the adults had decided to ride in the back of John's truck along with their gear. Yes, Leo and Andy could have orbed everyone to the front gate being white lighters, but neither wanted to create a spectacle. Considering the trouble the Winchesters were still having with paparazzi (Sam had actually had to pick one up and literally throw him off the porch so that he, Hannah, Jordan and Jess could make it to class on time last week) everyone had agreed that that a spectacle was not a good idea.

Unloading John's big bad hunter's truck proved to be an amusing experience. There were four strollers, five diaper bags, multiple backpacks and gym bags filled with everything from baby necessities to portable fire extinguishers to sun block to magic books and protections charms. Not to mention fourteen adults scrambling around and trying to get organized around five small children, at least one of whom was filling the air with magic sparkles from sheer excitement.

Dean was pushing the twins in their baby carriage towards the front gate at the end of the long line with Phoebe when he finally asked something that had been bugging him for a while. "Just how did your big sisters both end up dating white lighters anyway?"

"Well, Leo was assigned to us when we started the Charmed Ones gig. He showed up and answered a handy man ad we'd placed in the paper. The manor house has been in our family for five generations and let me tell you, five generations of demonic attacks takes a toll on a house," she grinned at Dean's surprise.

"Five generations? In the same house? Woah," Dean said, impressed.

"Yeah, we've been there a long time. Any way, it wasn't long before he and Piper started dating. It was totally against the rules but they fell for each other hard and fast. Andy's a different story. Unlike most white lighters Andy was in a critical position when he died and the Elders made sure that no one noticed he died. He took a little vacation and learned to use his powers and went right back to work as an Inspector in the San Francisco Police Department. San Francisco's a hot spot for Demonic activity because there's a ley line convergence there. It's not as bad as a hellmouth but its close. Andy also grew up next door to us and he and Prue dated through high school. They've had a lot of ups and down since we came into our powers but now that Andy's a white lighter things are actually getting better for them."

"Let me guess, he was Mr. Normal," Dean said.

"All white lighters are before the Elders call them," Phoebe explained. "They are just good people who spend their lives helping others. But Andy had found out about us several months before his death. He and Prue were working on a relationship and they didn't stop just because Andy became a white lighter."

Dean and Phoebe waited while their bags were checked, one of the new security precautions that had become standard. When the security men checked the bags the group had, they almost freaked. Not that they had any of their REAL weapons with them, but Slayers never went anywhere without a stake or two and Winchesters and Halliwells weren't much better. They calmed down when they saw the Watcher's Council id's and waved them on through to the gate. "Welcome to hell," Dean whispered to Phoebe.


	10. Chapter 10

"Oh this is so not good," Dean whimpered to himself as they entered the Main Street section of Disneyland. It was bad enough that it was so crowded, with kids all over and this place looking like something out of his now second worst nightmares. It was the ultimate Yuppieville, set back in time about 50 years or so. "Can we move on please?" he said a bit louder, anything to get this over with although Xander was already buying some junk food. Dean had already scoped out the very few shops he had found interesting on Main Street (mostly the junk food shops) and about died from sticker shock. There was no way he was going to pay those prices just for food. Now he understood just why Sam had insisted on packing a bag full of snacks and had more stuff waiting for them back at the hotel.

"Which way do we go? Since everything is basically set up in a big circle with a few things in the middle, if we walk in one direction we should be able to find everything eventually," Jess said.

"Which is the quickest way to the kids' stuff?" Dean wanted to know.

"Toontown is on the other side of the park, so it doesn't matter which direction we go in. We should get there around noon or so," Sam said consulting his map.

"Left to right!" the witches all voted for.

The Winchesters looked at each other, shrugged and agreed. "Adventureland it is," Dean quipped. They took the first major left hand turn that took them out of the Main Street section. The first attraction they found was the 'Enchanted Tiki Room, an animatronic show done with a tropical theme. The adults looked at it, then at each other and by passed it. Even though the show was a short one there was no way any of the kids could sit through it. Amber in particular was still giving off magic sparkles.

"Phoebe, those sparkles aren't going to do anything are they?" Dean whispered in her ear.

Phoebe, who had a similar reaction the first time she'd seen them, smiled and said, "No, they just sparkle which is why she likes them."

Dean nodded, satisfied with the explanation. That's when he saw Amber take off dragging both Prue and Andy by the hands. He reached over and grabbed the map from Sam and said, "Ok, we're going to go wait in line for the boat ride." It had to be better than waiting in line to meet Jasmine and Aladdin. He was not up for standing in line to meet Disney characters. Most of the others decided to join them and Dean was pleased to see that this was one of the rides that didn't have a height restriction. They had to put the strollers in a cordoned off area but they had prepared to carry everything in packs that was the only thing they had to leave behind.

It didn't take long for Amber, Prue and Andy to join them in line. "Mommy, Daddy look at what I got!" Amber was bouncing up and down she was so excited about getting Jasmine and Aladdin's autographs in her brand new book. She had gotten the book just for this occasion and was intent on filling the entire thing with Disney signatures.

Once they got on the ride, Dean wasn't so sure that it had been a good idea. The trip itself was pretty good with animatronic animals and some pretty neat stuff to see, especially since he could take it with the twins, who really seemed to enjoy the sights. It was the 'tour guide' that had Dean itching for his shotgun. The guy would not stop it with the lame jokes and puns and Xander wasn't helping by cracking them right back at him. Usually he'd be joining right in, but these were really lame. Before they were halfway through the ride Dean leaned over to whisper in Phoebe's ear, "Isn't there a silence spell or something you can put on these guys?"

Phoebe sniggered and whispered back, "Law of Consequences, Dean, sorry." Dean only groaned and held onto Johnny tighter as he tried to reach for the hippos that were coming out of the water.

Hannah was fascinated. She had never been to Disneyland as her parents had thought it a very common place and beneath their social class. She really didn't see why. It looked to her like a fun place to visit. She giggled when she heard Dean asking Phoebe to shut up Xander and the tour guide. Her Watcher was really not one to suffer quietly and this was pushing his buttons. Of course it wasn't his style to be vicious about it. No, he just got snarky which was really fun to listen to at times.

Even if her parents weren't happy with the Council's choice of Watcher for her, she was. Dean and his family had been great. They treated her like a little sister, from making sure that she went to school and did her work to checking out the two dates that had been brave enough to ask her out. And it wasn't because they didn't think she could take care of herself either. No, it was because they cared enough to make sure that she didn't have to deal with anything she didn't want to.

They had been watching the animals and the 'headhunters' exhibits (personally she had loved the rhino with his horn up the butt of the explorers climbing the tree) when the animatronic snake sort of launched itself at the boat right next to Hannah. Her Slayer reflexes went to work before she had realized that it wasn't a real snake. When everyone blinked next the snake's head was practically twisted off. "Ahhh," the tour guide hadn't had that happen ever. He had been ready to pull out his gun with the blanks in it when the girl had moved.

"Don't worry," Prue said to both a blushing Hannah and the tour guide, "I can fix it." She muttered under her breath and motioned backwards at the snake that was now behind the boat. The snake seemed to reverse its twist and was now once more ready to scare the tourists.

"Sorry about that," Hannah apologized to the tour guide.

Hannah's group just smiled and Dean said, "Good job, but you might want to tone down your reflexes while we're here. I doubt even a demon would want to go anywhere near this place."

"How did you do that?" the two passengers who weren't part of Hannah's group wanted to know.

"I'm a Slayer, and it looked like it was going for Johnny," Hannah was extremely embarrassed. She knew that most of the animals here were just part of the ride and wouldn't hurt anyone. She had just been startled.

"That is so cool," the ten year old who was riding with her dad said. "I didn't know that Slayers got to go on vacations! They just told me last month that I'm going to be a Slayer when I get older. That's why we're here."

"We wanted to make sure that she got to do something special before she had to start being a Slayer," her father explained.

Willow took a good look, "You're Becky Long aren't you? I'm Willow Rosenberg, and that's Xander Harris. We're with the Watcher's Council."

"Don't you mean the two of you are the Watcher's Council?" Dean snarked.

"Junior members," Xander proclaimed. "Once a Scooby, always a Scooby, so you couldn't get us out of helping run the place if you tried."

"Besides, can you imagine Buffy and Giles trying to run things by themselves?" Willow and Xander looked at each other and gave a huge shudder to everyone's amusement.

Hannah laughed, "I'm Hannah, that's Jordan and we're both Slayers. John is Jordan's Watcher, Dean is mine and that is Sam and Jess, they're both Watchers in Training." She pointed to each one as she came to them. "These two babies are Johnny and Mary; they're both Dean's kids. And these are the Halliwells, they're a witch family we work with sometimes, Prue, Andy, Piper, Leo, Phoebe, Amber, Wyatt and Chris."

"Just because you're going to be a Slayer doesn't mean that you don't get to have a life too," Jordan said as the boat docked and they were preparing to climb out. "It just means that you have to plan your life around your slaying."

"Which is why we'll be going on patrol as soon as the sun goes down," John reminded her. He hitched his gym back over his shoulder and handed Mary to Sam up on the dock so that he could get out.

"Yes sir," she said with a blinding smile. Hannah wasn't the only one who was excited to go to Disneyland for the first time. For her it was a trip that she had never even dreamed of going on. Besides, it was sure to be a quiet night. 'Crap, I just jinxed the patrol didn't I?' she thought.

Everyone scrambled out of the boat and reorganized themselves with the kids back in the strollers, kids' stuff bags wrapped around handle bars and everyone back with their park buddy (everyone knew who they were supposed to keep track of with backups for their backup no one in this group was taking any chances of someone getting lost) and Sam asked, "What's next?"

"The treehouse," Piper said and pointed at the large structure off to their left. "The boys love Tarzan and Wyatt really wants to climb it. He was very upset to learn that he couldn't have a treehouse too."

Sam pulled out his map and checked out the remaining rides in Adventureland, 'yeah he thought he had seen that.' "Listen, why don't those of us who don't want to go on the Indiana Jones ride stay with the kids at the treehouse? By the time that they get played out, you should be done. Jess and I can take the twins," he offered. He knew that this was one of the rides that Dean and their dad would like and this trip was as much about letting them have some fun as it was about giving the twins some 'normal' time. Besides, the kids were all too short to ride on this one.

"You sure?" Dean asked.

Sam just sighed, "Go! Have fun! Just make sure I have the fire extinguisher."


	11. Chapter 11

For some reason everyone was avoiding Tarzan's treehouse, although it could have been the fact that three of the witch children were giving off sparkles. It seemed that Johnny was a quick study and he liked the sparkles as much as Amber did. Of course he liked bananas more and it only took one example of Phoebe using a shielding spell to keep Johnny's fire power under control before Wyatt began using his shield to catch Johnny and Amber's sparkles. Jess and Sam didn't even blink at the magic that the children were playing with and Sam only had to use the fire extinguisher once. This time it was Piper who fixed the damage.

It was this nonchalant attitude from the non-witches that made Mrs. Long relax around the kids. Both Becky and her father had gone on the ride with about half of the Winchester group. None of the Halliwell ladies had wanted to go on the ride, so they were the ones watching the kids and making sure that there was no destruction, or at least that whatever destruction was done was fixed before anyone found out about it. Sam was the only man there and he was the one watching Mary as she tried to crawl up the path through the treehouse. She hadn't mastered sitting up yet, much less crawling, but it was already obvious that she had the Winchester determination in spades. She was going to make one hell of a Slayer when she grew up.

"So, your nephew is going to grow up to be a witch and your niece is going to grow up to be a Slayer?" Mrs. Long asked. "How do you deal with that? How does your brother?" Even if her husband hadn't recognized the Winchesters, she had and she knew that if she was to be able to get a handle on what her child's life was going to become these were the people to ask. They were neck deep in that world and had been for years before Sam's becoming a Seer.

"We deal with it as a family. Dad and Dean took jobs as Watchers because the Council is really short on Watchers right now. All three of us have the training we need to be Watchers but I was still in school so the Council was waiting until I graduate before offering me a position. When they found out that Mary is a Potential, Willow came and told us. That was when Jess and I volunteered for the job. When Mary is Called, I'll be her Watcher. Jess has volunteered to become the Watcher for Mary's partner. No Slayer works alone these days. That keeps everything in the family and that's the way we like it." Sam grinned, that was an understatement. The Winchesters as a rule were a paranoid bunch. But that came with the territory because there really was something out there that wanted them dead. Actually, there was more than just one thing; they'd made a lot of enemies on the other side over the years.

"A Watcher is a vital part of a Slayer's life. He or she becomes mentor, partner, friend, confessor, emotional rock; there really isn't a way to explain everything that a Watcher does for their Slayer. It is our job to provide our Slayers with everything they need from research to training to personal needs. The one thing that they can't be is a parent. We're really skirting the line with my being Mary's uncle but Dean doesn't trust anyone else to look after Mary and Mary's Watcher needs to be someone he trusts because he has his own Slayer to Watch. He can't be worrying about Mary; he has to worry about Hannah.

"That is the one thing you're really going to have to prepare for. Watchers and Slayers are partners. Becky isn't going to want to share a lot of that part of her life with you. She's going to want to shield you from the bad stuff in her life, just like you want to shield her from the bad stuff now," Sam said as he picked up Mary from where she gone down on her belly. She screwed up her face in a huff and he could tell that she was about to scream so he distracted her with a teething cookie. She grabbed it and as she was busy exploring it he got the large plastic bib around her neck. Those cookies were really messy when gummed by a baby.

"And that's why a parent can't be their child's Watcher," Mrs. Long said as she watched Sam deal with Mary.

"Yes, because a parent's first reaction is to put themselves in the way of something that is going to hurt their child. That doesn't work when you're on a Hunt. Everyone has their own job to do and a Slayer's job is to be in the line of fire." Sam said. "But that doesn't mean that you can't be involved in her life as a Slayer too. Learn Latin so that you can help with research, learn how to maintain her weapons, learn how to protect yourself so that will help her to not worry so much about you, if you don't know how to cook or you only know basic cooking, learn how to cook extremely large amounts of high energy foods, doing things like that will show her that you want to support her and she'll be more willing to let you into that part of her life."

"How's my girl?" Dean said as he came up beside Sam.

"If she isn't crawling by the end of the week it won't be for lack of trying," Sam said as he passed Mary over to Dean. "How was the ride?"

"Not bad," Dean smirked. "I didn't know they actually had some good stuff here. But it sure is hard to find under all this sickeningly sweet sugar crap."

"Dean it isn't that bad, well most of it isn't," Sam had to admit that some of it was. Some of those early Princess movies were so bad they could gag a Troll. "And speaking of really sickeningly sweet stuff, I've got an idea I want to run by you." As the Longs left and everyone was getting kids back into strollers, Sam pulled Dean, Hannah and Jordan over to help get the twins set up and to make sure that no one overheard him outline his idea to his brother. An idea that left all three of them snickering and agreeing to help. John wasn't going to know what hit him come Christmas.

Next up was the French Quarter, starting with the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. That was one the entire group could go on so they got in line. It was hot, it was boring and kids were whining. 'At least they aren't our kids,' Dean thought as he pushed the baby carriage along. His kids were busy chewing on their stuffed animals and Johnny at least had gotten bored making sparkles. Amber was still making them and Wyatt, pesky little brother that he was, was busy trying to catch them with his shield magic. Chris was busy with a bottle. 'Their group was no doubt the best behaved in the entire place.'

The ride was another one that Dean was more than willing to go on again. If these rides were the reason Sammy had bullied his way into getting them there, then Dean had to admit that they were worth the trip. And this was the best place to pick up the supplies that were needed to pull of Sammy's idea. He kept his eyes open as they walked through the area's shops but nothing really jumped out at him as being perfect. The girls on the other hand, found lots to admire so he wasn't inclined to do anything but try and relax as he wandered after them. The search kept it from being too boring.

Their last stop in the French Quarter was the meet and greet with Captain Jack Sparrow and listening to the pirate band. While Amber got her book signed, Dean listened in on John's quiet lecture to Jordan about how to deal with real ghost pirates. He shuddered as he remembered that job. Those had been some really tough ghosts. 'And speaking of ghosts, guess where the next stop was?' Dean snickered as they got in line. He thought it was hilarious that they were taking a tour of a fake haunted mansion.

That is until Amber got nervous. "Don't worry about those ghosts Amber," he knelt down so that he could look at he little girl behind him. For a Princess loving little witch, she was a nice kid. "Not one of them is real. Do you remember the snake that Hannah broke in the jungle ride?" Amber nodded her head. "Well that wasn't a real snake either. If there are any real ghosts in that ride, I'll take care of them." He opened his bag and let her peek into it. "I've hunted ghosts before and I know what real ones look like. I've got most of what I need to take care of any real ghost right here. And what I don't have, I can get really fast. All I have to do is ask your dad. Does that help?'

She nodded, relieved. "Here, take this," Dean said as he gave her a plastic bag filled with rock salt. "If there is a real ghost in there, that'll protect you. You just throw that right in its face when I tell you and it'll disappear."

"Thank you Dean," she whispered and gave him a big hug. It helped having an expert along. The mansion was decked out in it's Holiday finery, so there were extra characters and things that weren't there the rest of the year, most notably Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'. To Amber's relief (as well as the adults with her) the ghosts turned out to be funny rather than scary.

It wasn't until Sam shot both John and Dean a hand sign that Dean's amusement was shot. It seemed that there was a real ghost in the mansion. John flashed then the sign for tonight and both Winchesters nodded. It seemed that this was where they would be taking their nightly patrol. The park closed at eight. They'd have to make a stop at the Park's security to let them know that they would be investigating. It was really unusual. Dean had dug up everything he could on the park's history. Mostly, he admitted to himself, to see if there was anyway he could get out of going, but he hadn't found any indications of ghostly activity. At least not the deadly kind, could Sam have actually seen a benevolent ghost?

That question bothered him enough that he didn't bother to ask Jess where she was taking the twins while he and Sam rode the Splash Mountain ride. The line was a pain but it gave the Winchesters enough time to go over what Sam had seen while on the Haunted Mansion ride. There was definitely something there to investigate but nothing that sounded very serious. A benevolent haunting was rare, but not unheard of in their line of work. The information was enough to let him settle down and enjoy the ride. He did like the story of Briar Fox and the last plunge was great! At least it was until he saw the Halliwells coming out of the Winnie the Pooh ride.

"Jess, Phoebe," he heard Sam call. That was when he realized that the girls weren't with the rest of Phoebe's family. "Did you find anything worth buying?" Sam asked.

Phoebe laughed and pulled out a shirt with Tigger on it saying 'Tiggers DON'T like honey!'. "I love Tigger. He's the best character out that series."

"What's next?" Dean asked.

Sam pulled out his map, "Frontierland, there's a rollercoaster and shooting range attraction. We need to go back to Tarzan's tree and take a left."

Dean perked up, "You mean I actually get to shoot something?"


	12. Chapter 12

Xander was having the time of his life. Although he had grown up in California, his parents had never taken him to Disneyland and neither had Willow's so he hadn't even had the opportunity to go by proxy through his best friend. Which made this trip all the better because he was here with Willow. He'd had fun snarking with the tour guide on the jungle cruise ride and the Indiana Jones ride had been a sheer blast. He'd even managed to pull Mr. Long aside for a few minutes in line for an offer of more detailed information while Becky peppered Hannah and Jordan with questions. His main job at the Council was Slayer support and it was a job he threw himself into whole heartedly.

He didn't even mind that they were going with a bunch of very little kids. Only Amber was old enough to hold a decent conversation with but he had to admit the other kids were really cute. Especially the little sparkle fight Amber was having with Wyatt. Amber would shoot off some sparkles so that she could watch them and then Wyatt would catch them and see if he could squash them. He was enjoying that the way only a little boy could and every time he succeeded he'd yell, "SMOOSH! SMOOSH!"

He also appreciated the way Prue was handling Amber. He had heard her telling Amber how proud she was that she was helping her little brother with her magic. "Taking care of your little brothers is a big responsibility Amber. I know because I'm a big sister too."

"But Aunt Prue, I want to keep my sparkles," Amber said, torn between her aunt's approval and wanting to do what she wanted.

"Ahh, but you can do both. That's a bit harder but I think you can do it. Watch me," Prue said. Then she made two groups of sparkles, one next to her and one farther away that Wyatt could squash.

Amber concentrated and after a few tries got the knack. The grin on her face was blinding and all the way back to Tarzan's tree she was busy making sparkles both for herself and for her brother. Xander noticed that although she did make sparkles for herself, there were a lot more for Wyatt to squash than there were in her bunch. Yep, appealing to the big sister instincts was definitely the way to go. It also helped her to gain yet more control over her magic. He knew his women and wondered how long it would be before she was wearing the sparkles as jewelry.

Their first stop in Frontierland was a shooting exhibition and he wasn't surprised to see that all three of the Winchesters were checking out the laser rifles. He knew that the Hunters depended on guns for their work and that John and Dean in particular were almost obsessed with them. Xander could tell that the man behind the counter wasn't sure what to make of the men who were going over every inch of the rifles until he came close enough to hear their quiet conversation and even then it wasn't what he was expecting.

"Got to watch it, there's no kick with these."

"Site on this one's a little off; you'll need to aim to the left a little."

"Too bad I can't pull these apart; I'd like to see what the power source is. Maybe we could adapt something like this for vamps."

Xander couldn't hold back his laughter at the look on the man's face. Dean's matter of fact announcement that he wanted to dismantle the laser rifles so that he could make one to take out vampires had startled the man. That escalated to shock when as one all three turned and laid waste to the line up of bad guys on 'Boot Hill' regardless of whether they were stationary or not. Being nearly perfect marksmen, the targets really hadn't been that much of a challenge. The challenge had been adapting to the new weapon.

"WOW!" breathed one boy in the crowd that was watching. That seemed to be the general consensus. The Winchesters shrugged it off. Shooting things was nothing new to them, even if shooting cartoon characters had a lot funnier result than shooting ghosts. Whoever had come up with the ideas had done a good job. But then anything would be funnier than shooting a ghost. That was something that tended to be slightly on the scary side, even with as much practice as the Winchesters had.

But the scariest thing of all was that Dean was still mulling over the idea of laser rifles powerful enough to take out a vampire, and Xander was pretty sure that Dean would come up with a way to do it. When it came to figuring out new weapons against the things that went bump in the night Dean Winchester was at the top of a very short list of weapons designers. He was the one who had made the leap of putting rock salt into shot gun shells instead of lead pellets. John had told him that story one night over weapons maintenance. Dean had been all of eight years old and his skills had only gotten better over time.

Everyone said that Sam Winchester was the genius of the family but Xander wasn't so sure that he was the only one. He of all people knew how hard it was to create weapons out of cannibalized parts even if you were just trying to fix something that you already had. Creating a brand new weapon was extremely difficult even with a full weapons shop behind you. Dean was often working with whatever came to hand. If his family needed something he was often able to come up with something that would do the job and usually did it very well. Xander made a mental note to expand Dean's budget to include a bit for weapons research. It would never do to have one of the top people at that sort of research unable to their work just because of a lack of funds.

That thought lasted until they split up so that they could go on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. There was a spot for those watching the kids to sit and have a midmorning snack while the rest went on the ride. It turned out that Willow really wasn't all that comfortable on rollercoasters and neither was Piper. That worked out because Wyatt and Amber were ready for a break and a story with their snack and all three of the babies were taking a nap. So everyone else got in line and rode the coaster.

It was a good coaster but it started a story war, Winchesters verses Scoobies over who had the scariest supernatural experience. Xander wasn't sure if he was proud or embarrassed over the fact that he won with the story of how he and Buffy had escaped from a large nest of vampires after going in after a friend without proper weapons. Hey, what could he say, it had been his first hunt the day after he had found out that vampires were real and he had only been sixteen. He had been extremely green. Now he wouldn't dream of taking on such a group without at least half a dozen Slayers at his back and every weapon he could think of. You never knew what was hiding down in a vamp nest. It was story he told often to new Slayers and then went on to list all of the things that they had found in vamp nests over the years. Needless to say the list impressed the girls and drove the point home.

The stories lasted until they stepped into Fantasyland. By unspoken agreement the stories were ok for when they were taking the back route where there weren't that many people, but when they were in amongst the little kids and their families they were put on hold. Fantasyland was the hot spot for kiddie fun. And what Xander was sure was Dean's private version of hell.

First up was the Casey Jr. Circus Train and Xander could almost see Dean turning green. John wasn't helping any when he recalled the fact that Dean had read the story to Sam as a toddler every night for months when they were small or that he had insisted on doing the reading himself because he had just learned to read. The worst part for Dean was that he couldn't even flip off his brother or father for teasing him in front of so many little kids.

Amber and Wyatt insisted on riding the carrousel next. That was hands down boring, but watching the looks on the faces of the little kids made it all worth it, especially the babies. Xander wasn't sure but he thought that Mary and Johnny were a little more aware of the world around them than other kids their age because he could see them actively trying to figure out how their dad and grandfather managed to stand still and yet they were still moving up and down.

From there they went on the Pinocchio ride and then to Amber's favorite place in the world, the Princess shop. It was filled with every costume of every Princess and female heroine from every Disney movie ever made. Dean balked at even setting foot in the shop. He was completely adamant that Mary was not under any circumstances going to look up to Disney princesses. The ladies were smirking at him knowing the futility of that one while the men were just wanting to get it over with. Xander ended the stalemate when he remarked that the story of Mulan was actually based on a legendary Slayer and the horde that she had led a human army against had really been an army of demons. Not only was Dean impressed enough to go into the store, so were the people around them. Disney did a rather brisk business in Mulan merchandise that day.

Then came the whirlwind tour through the little kid rides. Xander could hardly contain his excitement. These were the rides that he had dreamed of as a kid and some of them he could still actually go on as they were designed so that parents could take their little kids. When Dean threatened to shoot Xander the next time he bounced, Willow told him that as Xander was her kid, he should watch his own and let her worry about Xander.

"Your kid, huh?" Xander asked as they stood in line.

"Of course," Willow said calmly. "That offer of an age reversal still stands you know." She shot him a wicked grin.

Xander wildly shook his head. Even on a voluntary basis, he did not want to be a kid again. There were far too many people and things who would take advantage of such a situation. And his friends were at the top of the list. "No thank you, Willow. Not for the Xandman, I've spent too much time trying to get here."

'Here' was a place of respect that he had earned. He was a teacher of Watchers, a shoulder for Slayers, the organizer for the Parents of Slayers support groups, and whatever else was needed. He was THE person responsible for the support structure that was now given to the Slayers and no matter how fun an afternoon as a child might seem in comparison to all that responsibility, it was one thing that Xander would never give up on, even for an afternoon. And Willow knew that and it made her even prouder of her oldest friend. That of course did not preclude her from teasing him about it. 'Hmmm, that little dragon that went with Mulan in the story, I think that would be an excellent present for Xander,' she thought.


	13. Chapter 13

The next corner brought them to the one place that Dean had dreaded being anywhere near all day; the 'It's a small world' ride. The tune sucked and worse it stuck itself in a person's head until it drove that person insane. That torture was bad enough, but the ride itself was full of dolls, very pretty, very girly girl dolls. The kind one of Dean's ex-girlfriends used to collect. The one that had dumped him because he was a Hunter.

He leaned over towards Sam, "I am not going to be responsible for my actions if anyone has enough stupidity to drag me in there."

"Me too," Sam agreed and shuddered.

"Wusses!" Prue muttered at them. Amber was squealing with delight and dragging her and Andy towards the line. Prue had her hand locked around Andy's wrist. When he threw them a pleading look, Dean and Sam just gave him matching smiles as they waved. John shook his head as he found a place to wait. Some things never changed and really he wouldn't want them to. His boys were able to find ways to have fun in even the most dire of circumstances. This might not be that bad, but only because no one was forcing them onto the ride.

They found an out of the way spot to wait for the three on the ride. Sam and Dean spread out a blanket for the twins and set them down on it between the adults. Johnny had managed to learn to scoot/crawl with one leg tucked up underneath him. He spent the time they were waiting moving from one family member to the next. Everyone could tell that Mary was very put out with this situation. As far as she was concerned it was not fair that Johnny could get around and she couldn't.

She managed to get onto her hands and knees and wobbled back and forth determinedly. "Come on sweetheart, you can do it," Dean said as he got down in front of her. She gurgled at him and inch by inch rocked her way towards him. "Yeah! That's my girl!" Dean crowed. He scooped her up and swung her around. He didn't care that he was being laughed at. His daughter had a troubled start to her life and she was finally making the sort of progress that should have happened months ago.

After they all had made much of the baby girl, the shell shocked Prue and Andy rejoined the group with Amber. While Amber chattered away about the dolls with her mother, the rest of the gang gathered up their stuff in preparation for continuing on. That was they were until Sam hurriedly passed Johnny to his father and fell to his knees grabbing onto his head. It had been a while since his last vision but his family knew the signs.

"Crap," John muttered as he put Johnny in the carriage. Jess had Sam cradled in her arms on the ground and the rest of them made sure that when Sam had recovered they would be able to move.

"Oh great, this is just what we need," Sam muttered and forced himself to his feet. "We need to find Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse together in a meet and greet for the kids. Donald's going to try and kidnap a toddler and we need to do it now."

Phoebe grabbed a picture of Donald Duck and concentrated on finding the location. Most of the time she didn't try to activate her power but she had practiced often enough that she could now do it when needed. With a gasp she was there, the vision filling not only her mind but her heart as well. "They're at Mickey's house in Toontown, right over there," she pointed.

"Stay and watch the kids," John ordered the white lighters before taking off running. Sam, Dean, Hannah, Jordan, Prue, Piper and Phoebe followed. Xander grabbed Willow and Jess and shook his head at them. It might be a trap or a distraction. They couldn't leave five helpless, well almost helpless children alone with just two white lighters to look out for them. White lighters couldn't kill, not even to protect themselves or other people. With Willow there for magic and Xander and Jess to take care of physical protection, the kids were safe.

With all of the families between them and Mickey's house it was nearly impossible to run. That didn't stop them from trying. Every second that they were delayed the vision reran through Sam's mind. He saw a little girl, no more than eighteen months old, wearing one of those little dresses that showed off the frilly diaper cover and white sandals. She was looking up at Donald Duck with a face full of pure innocence and curiosity. He (or she, who knew who or what was actually wearing the costume?) had the leash end of the toddler harness that the little girl was wearing. The Duck was leading the baby away from the crowd. If he got a few more steps Sam knew that they would be too late. The parents were distracted for those vital few moments watching an older child play with Mickey. And of course, no one else was watching her at all.

Sam refused to believe that they would be too late. The horrors that awaited the small child were too horrible to contemplate failure. They reached the attraction with Sam in the lead. His long legs and father's relentless training had given him the edge over the others. He was also tall enough to see over the heads of the people in line that the girl's mother had just handed over the leash to the Duck so that she could take a picture.

They rudely pushed people out of their way trying to get to the child in time. Just as in the vision, the child's mother turned her attention away as an older child called to her. Immediately the costumed character turned and led the child away. The Duck took three steps and then, to everyone's surprise, tripped and fell. Half a second later the Winchesters were on him, Dean and Sam forcefully picking him up and John taking the baby away from him.

Trying to keep panic from breaking out, Sam called out, "It's ok, he just tripped." He turned to the Duck and said, "Let's get you to the doctor to check out your ankle."

"Yeah, you don't want to ignore a twisted ankle," Dean said, picking up the cover story and backing his little brother. Phoebe slipped out of Mickey's house and called security. Piper and Prue, following the feeling of strong magic that they could sense, went over to a point just to the left of where the Duck had fallen. They found two small crystals on the ground, both glowing faintly with magic. The sisters grimaced at each other. They knew a Portal spell when they saw one. They quickly broke the spell and picked up the crystals as soon as they stopped glowing.

The mother took the baby from John and whispered, "He tried to take her didn't he?"

John nodded, "If you could come with us to security it would really help."

"Of course, anything you need," she said. She gathered up her family and followed the Winchesters outside.

"Wish I had a little of Leo's memory dust," Piper muttered as the ladies brought up the rear. "It would be so much easier if they all believed that he just tripped." The child had been wanted for some reason and she and her family would be protected until they were sure she was out of danger.

Outside the attraction they were met by security officers and hustled to the nearest security office. "Alright somebody tell me what happened here!" Brent Watkins, the chief of security, demanded. He could see one of the characters was being brought in by two scowling men and from the looks on the other people's faces the situation wasn't good.

"He tried to kidnap my daughter," the woman said gesturing to Donald Duck. "And they stopped him," she said moving her hand to indicate the rest.

"You aren't going to disgrace Donald Duck any longer!" Watkins growled. He was personally proud of the Disney character's reputations and wasn't about to let this joker make a mockery of them. He reached over and removed the cartoon character's head; only to find nothing. There was no one in the costume.

"It's a golem," Phoebe broke into the yells of surprise. "A warlock enchanted one of your costumes and used it to do his or her dirty work."

"And he or she probably couldn't take a child without a parent's permission, either that or whatever the child was needed for needed the parent's permission," Prue said working her way through the clues. "Mystically speaking handing over a child for any reason would be enough as long as the parent didn't leave a hand on the child and the child was taken before the parent took the child back. It's a loophole but someone's exploiting it."

"All it would have needed was a single moment of distraction," Piper said, "to get the child through the Portal to its master."

"I think that you should add some anti-violence spells to your security," Hannah said. "Here's the card of a specialist." She handed over the card to Watkins. "Mostly they do demon bars and such but I don't see why they couldn't do something for you."

"It would really be a better idea than relying on Mr. Disney's ghost," Phoebe said to the shocked man. "I mean he did help us stop the golem by tripping it but if it had fallen two feet to the left it would have gone through that Portal."

"The ghost is Walt Disney?" Sam butted in.

Piper smiled, "I guess he's still too much of a workaholic to leave."

"Uh, Dad," Sam started but John raised his hand.

"We don't do benevolent spirits. If Mr. Disney wishes to protect his park to make it safe for families I'm not going to try and stop him." John noticed that Sam wasn't the only one who relaxed when he said that. He didn't know why they thought that he'd salt and burn Walt Disney. Purely aside from the hassle of getting the family to agree to the cremation and the fact that Disney wasn't hurting anyone; John wasn't eager to invite the media back into his family's life. They were having enough problems as it was. "Do you girls think that you and Willow can come up with something to tide them over until they can get that specialist out here?"

"We'd have to go back to the castle as its the best center point for the park," Phoebe mused as she pulled out the notebook she used as a working version of the Book of Shadows. She walked off with her older siblings looking over her shoulders and making suggestions.

"They'll have something in place for you soon," Dean promised. "In the meantime, I gotta get back to my kids." Before any of the security people could say anything the group had left.

"I wonder if Jess packed my pain pills?" Sam said he rubbed the side of his head. The adrenaline rush had pushed aside the headache that always accompanied a vision. Once the excitement had run out the headache returned with a vengeance. Hannah and Jordan gently guided him from either side, ready to catch him if he should stumble; every vision and prophetic dream that Sam had meant one less Slayer dream for them. For that reason alone they would have done their best to take care Sam through the aftermath of his visions. Slayer dreams were cryptic and unsettling in the extreme. Seer dreams and visions, while unsettling and painful, were not cryptic. A Seer saw exactly what was going to happen and usually had a good idea of when and where as well. That was the huge advantage of working with Seers, not that Seers saw everything. Seers, like Slayers, only saw what the PTB's wanted them to see.

Jess saw the small procession and pulled her backpack around so that she could rummage through it for the bottle of pain pills and the bottle of water that she always kept on her. As Hannah and Jordan settled Sam on a blanket in the shade and Dean checked out the twins, no one realized they were being watched.

Far away the warlock they had thwarted seethed in anger. These were the ones who had destroyed her plans. They would pay dearly for their interference.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: I do apologize for the length of delay on this fic. The bunny was being very stubborn and wouldn't take any bribes until I learned my lesson. The trouble is of course that I have no idea why he got upset with me in the first place! ;) ;)

Yknot was furious. The power that it had invested in Samuel was being drained away faster than it could replace it. It couldn't cut the ties binding him to it because once made the ties became a permanent part of it. It needed the children it had chosen to suffer so it could feed off their misery and thanks to those creatures, those Slayers; Samuel was experiencing more joy than pain. The only way to stop the drain was to sacrifice him to recover the magic it had spent tying him to its essence. Yknot wanted all of them; Slayers and Hunters alike, dead both so it could recover the energy it had lost and so it could avenge its parent. The Hunter's had set back its plans by rescuing the twins and killing its spawn. The Slayers had destroyed the First. They all had to pay for that.

Yknot had agents everywhere. Most of them were either demons or humans who worshiped it or those who it had bound while they were infants. One of them noted the golem incident and that the twins hadn't been left without magical as well as physical protection. He also noted that the warlock who had set up the trap for the infant would make a good ally. She was strong and possessed no morals whatsoever. While she was also technically intelligent, she was also rather stupid. That was a combination that Yknot liked because it made them far easier to dispose of when the came.

Yknot shimmered next to the seething warlock. "So sad," it mocked. "They really are a pain in the ass aren't they? I mean the whole family just butts their heads in where they aren't wanted. And every time they do they screw the nicest plans all to hell. Tsk, tsk, tsk," it said shaking its head, or rather the head of the form that it had taken.

"What do you want demon?" she snapped looking into its yellow eyes. She had needed a pure innocent for her sacrifice. She didn't have time to be bantering with a demon if she was to find another sacrifice in time.

"Why I want them dead of course!" Yknot said. "What else could I possibly want? You aren't the only one whose plans they have screwed over."

"I still need a sacrifice," the warlock bargained.

"Done," Yknot promised. It placed the information that she needed in her mind. It had borrowed the ability from one of its followers.

"I'll see you after the sacrifice," the warlock promised with one last glare at the Winchester Clan. The witches were just finishing up the spell that would force her to leave the park. She had best leave before it took effect.

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Once the girls had cast the spell it was time to go back to the hotel suite. After the public spell casting, it didn't matter if the white lighters orbed them to the hotel or not. The spell had no effect on white lighters and they had pretty much announced their presence already.

Back at the hotel John and Dean put the twins down for another nap while Piper and Leo did the same for their kids. The rest of the group hung out in the kitchenette/living area/dinning area of the suite while Sam cooked up lunch. It was definitely time for a rest. Lunch didn't take long. Everyone was pretty much exhausted after their confrontation with the golem. Sam's headache had almost vanished but there was still an ache behind his eyes so he went and lay down with the twins. The rest crashed around the living room.

Hannah took out her knitting and rummaged around until she found her measuring tape. This was probably the only time she was going to be able to measure Dean without him getting out of it. If she was lucky, she could also measure everyone else too.

Dean saw her coming at him with the measuring tape and groaned. She had been pestering him for days now to let her measure him for the pants she wanted to make him. He really wasn't too sure that he wanted her measure him but there was no way to get out of it now. His excuses were all used up.

Hannah smiled at his groan. She had him now. "Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit," she chirped cheerfully. Quickly as she could she whipped the tape measure around his waist, upper thigh, calf, down his outer and inner leg, finally ending with around his ankle. "I'm going to have a tie closure for your ankles so you can get a knife or small gun strapped to either ankle. I'll put a slit along your calf so that you can reach it too."

"As long as no one can see it, I guess that sounds good," Dean said. He knew that once Hannah got on one of her projects nothing was going to stop her from knitting it. Hannah just smiled and continued on to the rest of the family. She had the idea of starting a knitted clothing line for patrolling clothes, armor if you will. It had to be flexible, washable and impenetrable to magic and most types of blunt trauma. Knowing her family as she did, she knew that anything that could survive with them had a great chance of being tough enough to survive almost anything.

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The first stop when they got back to Disneyland was the Matterhorn. The girls, minus Hannah and Jordan, decided to shop at the souvenir shop with the kids while everyone else rode the rollercoaster. Sam was glad to see that his dad and brother were relaxing and having fun. This had really been a good idea, even with the run in they'd had with the supernatural.

Then they had to stop at Autopia. With two confirmed car nuts (John and Dean) there was no possible way to by pass it. Not that anyone was all that eager to hurry on to something else. As the kids couldn't ride in the little cars as they, along with Sam, Jess, Andy and Prue went on to meet Ariel, the little mermaid.

"I'm glad we came," Jess said softly as they watched Amber wait for her autograph. It looked like Ariel was a rather popular character today. "Who knows what would have happened to that little girl?"

"I do," Sam said grimly as he recalled his vision. He shook his head and redirected his attention. The twins were getting a little bored and that was never a good thing. It was even less of a good thing when he considered the fact that these were little Winchesters; especially Johnny. He truly was his father's son and neither of them did boredom well. Sam looked over at Johnny just in time to see him start throwing sparkles. Only they weren't sparkles he realized just a moment later as a trash can suddenly burst into flames. They were sparks, sparks that were super charged somehow. Sam lunged for the fire extinguisher.

Prue was up with Amber, so she didn't see the disaster in the making. Andy, on the other hand was watching Wyatt and Chris. He didn't have any ability that would be helpful in this situation so he got Wyatt to throw a shield around the fire. Unfortunately, that meant that Sam couldn't use the extinguisher on it. Thinking quickly, Jess moved the strollers around the fire to hide it. Sam was wondering what they were going to do when the kids attention turned to something else when the fire just went out. The trash can was still somewhat intact, although badly burned. None of the adults had any idea what had put out the fire. Wyatt's shields allowed air, but not magic or physical objects to enter. The fire couldn't have run out of oxygen.

Prue walked towards where she had left the others with Amber holding on to her hand and bouncing over her latest autograph. They weren't where they had left them although they weren't far away. She shrugged and wandered over to where they were huddled around something or someone.

She started to get suspicious when she realized that Sam had the extinguisher out. But for some reason he wasn't using it. She hurried over and found them surrounding a melted trash can. "Johnny?" she asks.

"Johnny," they chorus in varying degrees of amusement and exasperation. A quick restoration spell and the trashcan was once more standing ready to do its duty in cleaning up the park. "Well the better he gets at using fire the better I guess," Jess said. Salt and burn was one of the family's standards after all.

"I'm just glad that this is the last area of the park," Sam said. "A few more attractions and then we'll be done. I had no idea how tiring this was going to be."

"It's always more exhausting than you think it's going to be," Andy said wisely. He had a babysat for his partner's kids more than once.

"At least the next ride the kids can ride on," Prue said as she waved at the rest of their group. The rest of the park was filled with just a few rides that they wanted to go on. The Buzz Lightyear ride was one for the entire family. Dean liked the fact that he could shoot things on it, even if it was just a light show. Space Mountain and Star Tours were two more for the grownups. But the 'Shrink the Audience' ride was for everyone so at least they could get the kids out of heat. With all of the wandering around they had done waiting for which ever group was riding the adult rides plus the long lines it was late afternoon by the time they left the park for the second time.

While the naps that they had taken during the early afternoon had helped, the adults were still tired as they walked over to where they had parked their vehicles. The kids on the other hand, were still going strong. It really didn't help that as soon as they got to the car and truck Andy and Leo had to leave. Being White Lighters was a full time job and their ladies knew that. It was surprising that they hadn't been called away earlier.

As the White Lighters left, taking the rest of their family and gear with them, Sam and Dean got the twins into their car seats. John and Xander took care of the twins gear and the girls took care of the adult's. Soon they were back on the road to the hotel. They never knew they were being watched.


	15. Chapter 15

Fall Finals Week - Stanford University

Finals are a tense time for any college student. With four college students studying for thirteen different finals, the Palo Alto Slayer House was full of tension. And those numbers didn't include the study groups that seemed to have moved into the library and kitchen. Dean had watched his brother study for years and had thought that he was well prepared for the onslaught of finals week. He wasn't.

These kids threw themselves into studying the way John threw himself into tracking the demon that had killed Mary. They didn't sleep; they took cat naps only when they feel asleep on their books. They didn't eat; they grabbed things out of various vending machines. Dean and John found themselves dragging their Slayers out on patrol more as a way to get them away from their books than any real need for patrol. Dean took to giving Jess one of the twins whenever he could find an excuse. John also had Sam escort all of the female students back to their dorms to give him a break. It was the only way to get their family through the week.

That was why Sam and Janice happened to be walking down the sidewalk next to the front lawn of one of the fraternity houses at three in the morning. Janice had fallen asleep at the kitchen table and John had woken her up before sending her home with Sam. While most would have blamed the sudden appearance of a half naked male body on exhaustion and an earlier frat party, Sam was far too knowledgeable about the supernatural to believe that he had simply missed the man the first time he had looked. "Is he drunk? Who's stupid enough to get drunk now?" Janice whined. She was exhausted and really didn't want to have to deal with a drunk frat boy. But she knew that she'd have to help Sam get him inside before a vampire or demon decided to snack on him. Sam wouldn't let the stupid idiot be demon chow.

"He's not drunk Janice," Sam said tersely. "Call the cops." He handed the now wide awake Janice his cell phone before pulling out his flashlight and getting closer to the area around the body. As he had known the case would be there was no trace of who or what had transported the body. He was just finishing his first circuit around the body when a patrol car pulled up. Sam continued to stay three feet away from the body as he switched his search from the lawn to the body itself. He ignored the questions the patrolman was asking Janice. Out of habit Sam checked the neck first before moving onto the clothes. There were no bite marks which mostly ruled out a vampire kill. They didn't usually try to hide the bites but then they usually did try to hide the bodies. Some sheets were wound around the body in a typical imitation toga and there was a fake laurel wreath on the ground next to the right hand. It was very mangled, almost as though it had been used as a weapon. The feet were covered with cheep plastic sandals, the kind that any student would pick up for a few dollars to complete a costume. Sam sighed; there was no way to identify who he had been from the clothes.

"Sir, don't touch the body," the patrolman said as he came over to where Sam was standing up.

"I'm not going to touch the body," Sam reassured the officer. "This isn't a natural death." Sam wasn't referring to death by natural causes versus homicide but to the supernatural. "The body wasn't here when we reached the corner of the property. We were walking on the sidewalk coming from the Slayer House." Sam pointed out their route to the officer as he spoke. "Before we reached the walk up to the house the body was here. It simply wasn't here one moment and it was the next. Janice called you while I came over here to check the body. I haven't gotten closer than three feet. There are no marks on the lawn that I can find and no bite marks on the neck. I've tentively ruled out vampire attack."

With that Officer Walker realized that this young man hadn't just been leaving the Slayer House, he probably lived there. He was not only far too calm at the discovery of the body but the very fact that he checked for fang marks on the victim's neck so casually meant that he had done this before. This was one of the Winchester boys. Hopefully he had figured something out that he could tell the detectives.

With that Sam turned back around and did his best to lean over the body without moving his feet. The light from Sam's flashlight slowly crawled up the body. The young man was on his back and the toga had ridden up, leaving his legs bare. "The sandals are too cheep to tell if they're falling apart from abuse or just shoddy workmanship. There's some bruising around the knees. The toga's filthy. There's bound to be a lot of trace evidence on it. I doubt that he would have used dirty sheets to make his costume," Sam lectured as he examined the body. The lecturing tone wasn't intentional. He was simply figuring things out while he was talking.

'At least this is an important lecture and he isn't patronizing when he does it,' Officer Walker thought as he took notes. He recognized the tone from the times that he had stood guard over a crime scene while the techs did their jobs. They all talked to each other the same way. The Winchester boy was getting a lot of detail just from the light of the flashlight. He wondered what the kid could do with the full light of day or under the lights in the morgue.

"The hands are bloody and bruised, especially around the fingernails. He's an athlete of some type. Those muscles are too well developed for anything else. I don't see track marks on his arms but there is more bruising around his elbows. I can't see any marks on his chest." Sam absently noticed a lack of hair which probably meant that the kid had shaved if the hair on his legs was any clue. He could almost hear Dean snicker in his head. Dean would have been making endless jokes about the poor kid's love life. He ignored it as he would have if Dean were actually there and continued to take notes in his head. "As I said before, no bite marks on his neck and I don't see any other injury there. Nasty knock on his forehead but I don't see any other facial injuries. He could have been conscious before he died. He looks a little blue but that could be just the lack of a good light. I'm not sure about the cause of death but he was held in a small space before he died, probably for a while judging from the bruising."

Sam took in the fair hair and Nordic features but it wasn't someone that he knew. Then he turned back to the patrol officer. "Listen, I've got a final to take in four hours and I still have to walk Janice back to her dorm. If you need me for anything else ask for Sam Winchester over at the Slayer House. If I'm not there someone will know where I am." Sam knew that the police would be out here for hour collecting evidence and he really needed to get some sleep before his final. There was no way that he was going to let work be the reason that he failed even one of his finals.

"Can I see your id?" Officer Walker asked, not that he doubted who the kid was. Sam handed over his driver's license while they both walked back to where Janice was standing on the sidewalk. While Officer Walker refused to let any celebrity influence him, he was inclined to give serious students a break. Miss Buckles looked like the only thing keeping her on her feet was the adrenaline from having found the body. Winchester didn't look much better. "OK kids. You'll have to come down to the station tomorrow to give your official statements. I'll let the desk sergeant know you're coming in so he can tell you which detective to talk to. You need to come in as soon as possible. Finals are understandable but waiting because you have to get your hair done or you don't want to miss your gym time isn't, got me?" he asked sternly as he handed back Sam's driver's license. He would probably catch hell from the detectives but he had worked the campus area for years. He knew exactly what finals week was like for serious students. Anyway, he already had their initial statements and they both looked ready to drop.

"Yes sir," they both said and headed towards the women's dorms once more. Walker shook his head as he turned back to look at the body. This was the second one found this week and if Winchester was right, it probably wasn't going to be the last.


	16. Chapter 16

"Finally

"Finally!" Xander muttered to himself as he looked over a report given to him by one of the Tracker Watchers. He had located the name of the demon that had killed Misty Baker in Las Vegas last summer. Taking four months to simply find the name of a single demon, not finding it, what kind it was or how to kill it, just finding its name, was simply unacceptable. Ok, for this demon they had to find the name first before they could find out the rest, but it was still far too long, what would have happened if this demon was planning on an apocalypse?

"Jason, this took far too long. I know that you didn't have much to go on and you really needed to get the name of the demon first, but I want you to track down everything we have on Yknot within the next 24 hours. In this game time is always of the essence and getting research like this done fast and thoroughly can actually save the world."

Jason nodded and shoved his thick glasses closer to his eyes. "I know Xander and I do have a little information to go on. I just thought that you and the Council would need to know what I've gotten right away. Yknot is the child of the First, that's what threw everyone off for so long. There is only one mention of Yknot in the records we have of the First and it seems to indicate that the First actually cared about its child and wanted corporality for its child as well as itself. It gave a branch of the Bringers as Vampires to Yknot. I think it had something to do with the corporality issue."

Xander shook his head in disbelief. Why hadn't anyone brought this up before? He knew that most demons cared in their own way for their offspring, and just as often the reverse was true. This Yknot was not going to be happy with any of the Slayers or the Council, not to mention the rest of the world. It had already reached a point where it could interact at least on a limited basis with the physical world, much like the First had done.

In Jason's eyes Xander seemed to change and grow in stature as he shed the goofball image that he wore like a second skin. This was the warrior people had told him about but he hadn't believed. This was the man who had stood down 'Darth Willow', Caleb - minion of the First, Angelus and others with nothing more than his courage.

"Jason, pull everyone else in the tracking department off of whatever they're working on and start them tracking Yknot. Send what information you have over to the research department, top priority. Send anything and everything that is found directly to the Council chamber. We're looking at another Holocaust." With that grim announcement Xander stalked off, presumably to tell the rest of the Council what was happening. Jason shuddered and turned to run back down the stairs towards the main floor and the departments that Xander had ordered him to put on alert. Holocaust was a term that had been used only once in Council terminology. It was used to describe the Battle of Sunnydale and the Calling of the Slayers.

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The desk Sergeant wasn't the only who was gawking when Dean Winchester came into the Palo Alto Police Department's building pushing a double baby stroller. His brother Sam was right behind him. While the older cops might have a hard time knowing which Winchester was which or have a hard time pointing them out in the street, Sergeant Karen Walker was a big fan. She was also the daughter of one Patrol Officer Walker, who had met Sam Winchester last night over the body of Dr. Tanner's new guest down in the morgue.

"Hello Sergeant," Sam said politely. "I'm Sam Winchester and I was told that you would know where I needed to go to give my statement about the body that Janice Buckles and I found last night."

"Detective Evans has that case. He's in homicide on the third floor. If you'll just wait a moment, I'll get you an escort," Sergeant Walker told him. She did her best to remain professional, but she wished she could sneak her phone out to snap a picture.

It took next to no time for an escort to arrive and the Winchesters were taken up to a squad room. While Sam followed the uniformed officer through the maze of desks, Dean caught sight of an older woman showing a picture to another detective. The minute Dean saw the picture his heart sank. This was one of the things he hadn't thought of when everything had gone public. He knew that some victim's bodies were never recovered, time the supernatural didn't even leave partial remains but he hadn't even thought about doing anything about it. This woman would never know what had happened to the young man in her picture if he didn't speak up.

Dean stopped the side by side stroller next to the detective's desk. "Is that your son ma'am?" he asked gently and quietly. The sobbing woman nodded and handed the picture to him. The closer look only confirmed what he had seen before. Dean sighed and snagged a chair from an empty desk close by. He set the chair down so that when he sat in it, he and the woman were knee to knee. He clasped her hands in his as he returned the picture and said, "My name is Dean Winchester and I'm one of the two Watchers assigned to this area."

"I'm Carol Messick, this is my son Tom."

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this ma'am, but your son is dead. He was a victim of a vampire attack sometime within the last four to seven days. He was turned, that is, at the moment of his death his body was taken over by a newborn demon. His soul went wherever it was supposed to go. The demon did not touch it. My Slayer, Hannah Adams, destroyed that demon two nights ago. I'm sorry we didn't have any way to tell you before now."

"Are you sure?" she pleaded with him, wanting him to be wrong.

"Yes ma'am I am," Dean said and pulled out his phone. He still had the pictures that he had taken during that patrol on its memory card. Normally he wouldn't have taken any pictures, being far too busy getting into the thick of things, but Hannah had things under control with the small group of fledglings and he hadn't recognized the demon that had been leading them. He had managed to take a few pictures before the vampires had been dusted and the demon had taken off. He hadn't known that vampires could have their pictures taken until he had looked at the pictures the next morning.

He had managed to get three pictures of the fledgling vampire that had been Tom Messick. In two of Dean's pictures the fledgling was in 'game face', the warped features, yellow eyes and fangs showing the demon within, the last, (or rather the first as the pictures went backwards in chronology) showed the Human disguise the demon wore. Mrs. Messick covered her mouth with one and ducked her head as a fresh burst of tears began. Dean sat there holding her hand, thankful that the twins were tired enough to sleep through the noise.

It wasn't that he wasn't sympathetic to Mrs. Messick's situation, he was; the thought of losing a member of his own family in such a manner had been the subject of his own nightmares for years. Dean just didn't want to have the twins upset and screaming at the top of their lungs, trying to calm them when they were in full upset duet was hell on his ears and heart. After a few moments Mrs. Messick looked back up at Dean, "Thank you for everything; for killing the demon that killed my son, for taking these pictures, for telling me what happened, just everything." Dean couldn't come up with anything to say to that or to the impulsive hug that Mrs. Messick gave him before she got up and left.

"I don't suppose you could come up with someway for us to get pictures of all of the vampires you guys take care of?" the detective said wistfully. He hadn't liked the outcome for Mrs. Messick but closure of any sort was much better than questions being forever unanswered.

Dean sort of frowned and shrugged while his brain started whirling with technical plans. "I think I could come up with something. We wouldn't be able to get them all, but I bet we could get more than a couple." It would also help with demon identification if they had a better description when they sent their reports in or were looking them up. That was why he had taken the picture in the first place, he just hadn't thought of victim identification when he'd done it.

"I'm sure the guys down in the tech labs can write a computer program to turn the pictures into something we can use," the detective was saying as Sam came up to them.

"I'm done here Dean," Sam said.

Dean nodded to Detective Evans and stood up. "I'll see what I can do," he promised the nameless detective before joining his brother and Evans. "How many more finals do you have?"

"I had my third one this morning and I have one more on Friday. It's a no brainer. Dad put us both through much worse than anything Professor Jergens can come up with." Dean knew that Jergens was the Latin teacher and that Sam was right. He had to have Advanced Latin in his transcripts so that he qualified for his future position as a Watcher for Mary, but Sam and Dean both spoke and read Latin fluently, had for years. Latin was one of the main languages that demonic research books were written in and no sit down, quiet and non-life threatening test could ever compare to having to read a book in the middle of an exorcism where one misread or spoken word would mean the death of everyone around you, including yourself. It was an easy A for Sam.

"In that case, let's go down to the morgue and check out the body, see what you couldn't see last night," Dean said as he started pushing the twins towards the door. He never noticed the shock on the faces of those that witnessed his willingness to take babies into a morgue or his brother's complete unconcern over the implication.

"Dad's already looking up the frat house's history," Sam said as he followed. Detective Evans followed Sam. They made a strange sort of caravan as they headed off to the morgue, which was probably the one place that Dean and Sam didn't have to get directions for among the official city buildings. Morgues and libraries were common places for Hunters to hang out and they were almost always the first places that a Hunter found the locations for when he or she hit a new town. As they were living in Palo Alto, the Winchesters had these locations memorized. The reason was practicality of course; there were many types of lethal supernatural entities that cause wounds that were very similar in nature. An experienced Hunter could tell the difference between one type of supernatural entity and another if they could see the wounds on the victim's bodies. With any luck, Dean and Sam would be able to get much more information on what had killed the young man down in the morgue.


	17. Chapter 17

'There are a lot of things that you come to expect to do when you work for a police department,' Daryl thought, 'Being interrogated by IA because your partner saved your backside with his White Lighter abilities is not one of them.' It had been a routine bust by Narco but they had needed some extra men and their captain had loaned them out for a little guard duty. All that was supposed to have happened was that they were to watch a door and arrest anyone who came out of it. Unfortunately no one had known that the warehouse they were watching was only one half of the drug operation and that he and Andy had been in the alley between the two buildings involved.

Daryl and Andy were stuck between the perps being chased out of one warehouse and those coming in to shoot the cops from the second warehouse. Caught basically out in the open between the two armed and deadly groups, Andy had done the only thing he could to save his partner's life; he had orbed them to the fire escape directly above their heads and out of the way of any weapons fire. Just after he had orbed them, bullets had riddled the spot where they had both been and now this AI jerk was harassing Daryl about Andy. Daryl made a note to let it be known around the station who had ratted them out and what Andy had done.

AI wasn't accusing them of doing anything wrong, not officially. They were just doing an 'investigation into procedural misconduct', something that almost every cop had done at one time or another. After all, telling a cop that saving his partner's life was wrong went completely against everything that bound police officers together whatever their service. That didn't stop Daryl from realizing that it was the beginning of a quite literal witch hunt, regardless of the fact that Inspector Andy Trudouh wasn't a witch. It was too bad that he couldn't just tell these jerks that his partner was literally an angel.

"Why did you not inform anyone that Inspector Trudou wasn't human?" the AI investigator growled.

Daryl's temper burned but he clutched at it with both hands. "My partner is not a demon!" he spat. "God may have given him a few extra gifts but that does not make him inhuman!"

Daryl's lawyer leaned forward. She was a lawyer that Daryl had worked with before and was well known for being a shark when going up against those who she believed were bashing innocent people's basic human rights. She had agreed to take this case on just on the off chance that these people would be stupid enough to say something just like that. "Please do continue," she said sweetly.

In the corner and out of phase with the room, Yknot watched the proceedings with satisfaction. Now one of the White Lighters would be out of the picture for a while. With its minions taking care of the Winchester's backup, its plans for them had a better chance at being completed. It turned and walked through the wall.

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Dr. Tanner was not amused. His latest patient was a victim of the supernatural and he had just been informed. Now, as a coroner, Tanner had known about the supernatural long before it became common knowledge. There wasn't a coroner out there that hadn't run into a fledgling vampire or two during their internship. He took the standard precautions with all of the corpses that made it to his morgue, examination for blood in the mouth/stomach and a toothpick sewn into the heart if any was found. However, that was for vampire victims and this victim was most definitely not that nor had the previous victim that was found two nights earlier in the same location.

He supposed that he had gotten complacent over the years, but there hadn't been anything that jumped out and screamed 'unnatural' death to him when he had worked on the first body. A body appearing out of no where was nothing to be causal about though; if this one presented the same cause of death then he would definitely have to go back and reexamine the first one.

Dr. Tanner was deep into his autopsy of the deceased young man when the door to the examination room opened and Detective Evans and the Winchesters walked in. "Evans why didn't someone tell me that there was a supernatural aspect in these boys deaths?" Sam and Dean both blinked in surprise because the doctor was wearing a hazmat suit. That was a new experience for them. They had never seen one in use before.

"Because we just found out doc," Evans said simply. "I don't see where it makes any difference and why are you wearing that? I thought that the first kid died of asphyxiation?"

Dr. Tanner sighed as he removed the heart and set it aside. "I'm wearing a hazmat suit because I don't know what other precautions to take. Vampire victims need to have toothpicks sewn into their hearts but these boys didn't die of blood loss. Some bodies need to be checked for literal demon spawn. I've seen small demons burst out of the skull of what was thought to be a heart attack victim. There are also cases where bodies carry supernatural pathogens. I for one, do not wish to become a werewolf because of carelessness!"

"Doubt he was a were doc," Dean snickered. Sam glared and smacked the back of his head.

"You said boys doctor. How many others were found like this and when?" Sam asked. Dean threw a glare back at Sam but as much as he wanted to tease the doctor about being a weenie, Sam was right to go straight for the information they needed. More than one body would help give them a pattern, and a pattern would lead them to their prey.

"Two young men were brought in under similar circumstances and from the reports they were found in the same place, the front lawn of a fraternity house. As far as I can tell both died of asphyxiation," Dr. Tanner answered Sam. He then turned to Dean. "I am well aware that neither of these boys died from a werewolf attack. I was merely using the most well known supernatural pathogen as an example. Sometime police officers can be incredibly thick about medical protocols and procedures."

"I get that," Dean nodded, and he did. He had been forced to work around stupid people his entire life. His own reign on his mouth wasn't the best when he had to deal with them either. "When was the first kid found?" He needed a timeline.

"Two days ago," Evans answered. "By the way, Doctor Tanner, this is Dean and Sam Winchester. Sam's the tall one. He found the second body. Winchesters, Doctor Tanner," Evans made the introductions. The last thing he wanted was to look incompetent in front of the city's supernatural experts but he figured Tanner had already taken care of that. "Doctor Tanner is our head ME."

Both Winchesters nodded in response to the introduction and Tanner responded in kind. No one wanted to shake hands considering that Doctor Tanner's were still dealing with a somewhat fresh human heart. "Do you think that we could take a look at both bodies? From what you've said and Sam saw last night I'm leaning towards a pissed off ghost as our killer. By the way, do you think that you could write a report on that Illiook infestation that you saw? The damned things are as rare as hell. I don't think that we've got an eyewitness on file," Dean said coming around Evans and Sam, pushing the stroller.

"I'd be more than happy to write that report for you," Doctor Tanner said. "Now, Eldon Jacobs is in drawer three. Help yourselves." Then he saw the stroller. "This is no place for children!"

Dean smirked. "Doc, I've been in morgues from the time I was old enough to be a good look out for my dad. Sammy was younger and usually got a better look at the corpse than I did because he was with dad. At least you aren't about to call the cops to arrest us for desecration of the bodies."

"Death is a part of life, Dr. Tanner," Sam said, backing up his brother. "There is no reason to hide it from the twins, and every reason to treat is as matter of factly as possible. Being scared of death or things associated with death will only get them killed. Whether anyone likes it or not, they're already a part of our family business. Mary will be a Slayer and Johnny is a witch."

Stunned the two men watched as Dean parked the stroller next to the body cooler and Sam pulled the drawer out. The first thing that Dean looked at was the kid's right arm while Sam took the left. Thanks to Sam's earlier look at the other body, Dean had a theory. With any luck the first kid would have similar, if not identical injuries. "Fingernails are ripped off," Dean observed.

"Same here, plus his finger tips are bruised and torn," Sam said.

"Did you find anything in these injuries?" Dean tossed the question over his shoulder.

"Wood splinters," Dr. Tanner said. He had no idea where they were going with this, but it was obvious that there was something familiar with the injuries to the two young men.

"Virgina?" Sam asked. Dean nodded. It was very similar to a case they'd had in Virginia a few years back. There a ghost had been placing teenaged girls in a casket buried underground. They had tracked down the ghost but had not been aware of the fate of the girls until they had unburied the ghost's remains. There they had found not only the remains of the original girl, but the others as well. The time between missing girls had reduced all of the girl's bodies to skeletons except the last one. The last one had only been there for less than a day. They had pulled the last body and examined it after salting and burning the rest of the skeletons. The examination of the body had shown the same injuries that they had just found on the boy. He had been buried alive.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

While the boys were at the morgue, John was at one of the other places that hunters frequented, the local library – in this case the one at the college. The girls were busy trying to get through finals week. Their grades were nearly as important as a hunt, so John would have to make sure that there was time for both, especially as he had plenty of people to work with.

The most obvious place to start investigating this hunt was the history of the fraternity house. The college itself had a history going back more than a century, but the fraternity and sorority houses, at least the current buildings, were more recent. Thanks to Sam, John had the address which made the search much simpler.

Five hours later all he had been able to find was a series of deaths that he found suspicious 70 years ago, one year less than the building had stood. That meant that the problem most likely did not involve the land the house stood on, but rather the house itself. Five young men had all been killed, one a night, the first week of December that year. Not only had it been finals week at the time of the murders, but now the house was undergoing extensive renovations for the first time. Renovations and large scale construction projects were well known to stir up supernatural activity – especially vengeful ghosts.

All five of the young men had been members of the fraternity, and all had been some of the wilder sons of some of the more prominent families of the time. John was well aware of the fact that such families tended to hush up anything that might hurt their standing in the community. There was also the strong possibility that the young men had been the spoiled rotten type, the ones who thought they could get away with murder. What information he had so far did suggest a vengeful ghost. With that in mind, John went down to meet the boys at the police station. They'd probably found more there.

* * *

"Eww, dude that's gross," Dean said conversationally as Dr. Tanner showed him the dissected lungs of the second victim.

"That corpse in Louisiana three years ago was worse," Sam called over to his brother. He was reading the reports of the first victim, paying particular attention to the forensic evidence collected from the body.

"That one was a floater, dead for about a week by the time we found him," Dean explained. Dr. Tanner nodded. He had enough experience with bodies that had been decomposing in water to understand just how disgusting that sort of situation was. "I'm not seeing any dirt over here, not like the one in Virginia," Dean told Sam.

"There wasn't any found on or in this one either," Sam replied without looking up. "I'm not sure they were underground."

"Where else could they have been buried alive?" Dean wondered.

Dr. Tanner and Detective Evens were enjoying listening to the Winchesters trying to figure out just how and where the young men had died. Being professionals themselves they were aware that the bodies had been dumped on the front lawn, the victims having been killed elsewhere. Dr. Tanner was especially pleased to see how quickly they had come to not only a very reasonable cause of death but also one that he could easily see explained the evidence rather than ignoring it. That they were also going over the lack of evidence that fit such a scenario, such as the missing dirt, and trying to fit it in was a bonus he hadn't expected.

"My guess is that they were sealed into one of the brick walls somewhere in the fraternity house," John said as he entered the morgue. He had been quickly directed there when he'd come into the station and had heard the last part of the conversation from the hall. "That would explain the lack of dirt but still allow for a buried alive death."

"Maybe," Sam said, unsurprised to see his father, "but both victims had splinters under their fingernails. That's more consistent with a burial in a coffin than being sealed inside a wall."

"How old is the house?" Dean asked. He had an idea, but wasn't sure it was feasible.

"71 years," John said.

"What if some wood walls were bricked over or vice versa?" Dean threw out.

Sam and John both paused what they were doing - Sam looking through the reports and John checking on the twins. "A wood paneled niche, bricked over?" Sam asked. John nodded. That made a lot of sense.

"God that's a lousy way to die," Evens said with a shudder. The idea of being locked up inside a small space was bad enough, but being awake and slowly suffocating was one of his worst nightmares.

Dean shrugged. "Most ways are," he pointed out calmly. Very few people died peacefully in their sleep as far as he knew. "But yeah, if I'd been left to die like that I'd be pissed off at the jerks who'd killed me too."

"There was a series of deaths about 70 years ago that are connected to both the fraternity house and finals week that fit these killings. Five young men, one a night, died of, get this; choking to death." The boys both huffed at the very lame excuse that the officials had come up with to their father's amusement.

"And I'm the toothfairy," Dean said, sarcastically. "No way five guys die of choking one right after the other." He turned to Doctor Tanner. "Did you find any sign of choking on either of these two?" Dean knew the ME hadn't and so wasn't surprised when he received a head shake. He made a there you go motion to the other men in the room.

"Actually you will be a toothfairy, at least the way most people think about it," Sam teased.

Dean glared at his brother. "I am not perpetuating disinformation about something that can actually hurt one of my kids! Took out one of those down in Nebraska almost two years ago; it was right after you left for school Sam."

"I haven't been able to pinpoint a possible first victim," John interrupted with the ease of long practice. "If those fraternity bastards moved the body, or it was discovered between then and now…"

"We're going to have a hell of a time tracking down the remains, even if we find the original murder site," Sam said. "There's some type of dust on the bodies, but the analysis hasn't come back from the lab yet. If we're lucky it's grave dust."

John shook his head. "We're not going to have time to wait for the lab work. This killing cycle will be over by the end of the week if it keeps to the pattern. Detective, I assume that you're the one assigned to these killings?"

Evans nodded. "Are you sure this is being done by a ghost and not a demon or a human?"

"This has all the markings of a ghost," John sighed. "First off, although there are demons who space their kills out by decades, those are usually much messier – organ removal, shredded bodies, and either a ritual component or signs of digestion."

Dean leaned over and whispered in a voice that was sure to be over heard, "he means the bodies have been gnawed on."

John reached over and gently smacked the back of Dean's head. "None of that is here. If this were being done by a human, there would have been traces of magic at the dump site. I had one of the witches that I know come and check that out this morning. There's nothing that indicates any sort of magical use at all anywhere in or near that house. Honestly that really surprised me. This being finals week I thought for sure at least some of the kids would try that to help them pass, but Phoebe said there wasn't.

"That leaves a ghost, plus there are signs that indicate ghost activity. These boys died the exact same way as the five boys did 70 years ago. There has been nothing unusual that's happened in that house in the years since; at least not until the renovations started. Those renovations are the first of any kind of construction done on the place since it was built. The first boy died the night after the construction started. Plus, I talked to the foreman of the construction crew. He and his men have run into classic signs of a haunting – strange electrical activity, scratching noises, things being moved from where they were placed when someone's back is turned when there was no one else around."

"Ok, you three are the experts. What can we do to help?"

"First off we're going to need to see any records you can find on the original five murders," Sam said, putting away the files he had been reading. "Second, we need you to look through whatever files you have to see if you can find the original murder victim. We need to be able to find the remains of whoever it was those boys killed."

"Are you sure the original boys killed someone? What if one of them is the ghost?" Doctor Tanner asked.

Dean shook his head. "Nah, this is classic vengeful ghost stuff. The first people that a vengeful ghost goes after are the people who killed them and the people who let it happen. When you add in how unusual the way they died is, either they were killed in the same place and manner of the original murder or something damn close to it."

Evans blanched. This was even worse than he had thought. "You mean, these boys were put inside the same wall with the original murder victim? With the body?"

"Yeah, that's what happened the last time we saw a buried alive by a ghost case. The victims were the kids of the original killers. They were taken and placed inside the grave with the bodies of the mother and child who had been killed. They had been hit by a car driven by a bunch of drunk kids. The kids freaked out and buried what they thought were two dead bodies. Unfortunately for them, neither the mother nor the child was completely dead at that point." Sam looked over at his sleeping nephew and niece. "That time the ghost was the mother, forcing the kids who had killed her to live through what she had; the death of her child by asphyxiation from being buried alive."

"I usually don't like ghosts because they're damned petty," Dean said. "You know, you're dead get over it, is what I think, but that case I can really understand." He turned to Evans, deliberately cheerful. "So, you're looking for a missing person, most likely in the week before the first boy was killed. If at any time a body was found in that house, we need to know about it. Once we find out who it is and where the body is, we can have a nice little bonfire and this ghost doesn't kill anybody ever again."


	19. Chapter 19

"Bobby, glad you could come," Xander said as he ushered the Hunter turned researcher into his office. Bobby Singer was one of the most knowledgeable researchers in the field of demonic possessions in the US. He was also a good friend of John Winchester, which meant that he had helped John with his own research, and right now they needed all the help they could get. He pulled up a comfortable chair for Bobby. Xander refused to be one of those people who had uncomfortable chairs in his office just to make those who came to see him feel insecure.

Xander's office might as well have been a shrine to the Sunnydale Scoobies. Pictures of his friends and their families adorned all four walls. Bookcases held maps of every place they had ever traveled to; weapons with special memories both bad and good - such as the stake that Xander had killed his friend Jesse with, books that were no longer vital – such as the one that was a demon trap, and other odds and ends such as the key to his Uncle Rory's car and Anya's well worn copy of the Kama Sutra.

Bobby huffed when he saw that book, but indicated the window with a nod of his head where a Star of David hung. "That really work?" he asked, a bit skeptical. He'd noticed that Xander wasn't being his usual comic relief self. Willow had once warned him about that and he hoped that a bit of shop talk could help. The only time Xander was this serious was when the shit was about to hit the fan.

"It works as well as a cross does. Willow found that out when her dad found the cross I'd nailed next to the balcony door in her bedroom. He wasn't one of us, so he freaked about his little Jewish princess being contaminated by local Christian zealots; meaning me. She finally got him to calm down by telling him that she'd watched a marathon of monster movies with me and Buffy and the cross was there to help her ward off nightmares."

"And she does the wards around here," Bobby said. "You said it was urgent when you called me and told me to bring everything I had on Winchester's demon, demonic possessions in the last century, any upswings in any sort of demonic activity that we Hunters had seen and anything I might have on a demon called Yknot. That's one lousy pun by the way." He placed a red netbook on Xander's desk, along with a case of DVDs and a separate drive to play them. "Willow found me a kid who could put all of my books and research onto these."

"I didn't name it," Xander shrugged, something that made Bobby tense. Xander should have taken the opportunity to make at least one joke. This was a lot more serious than he'd thought, and knowing this bunch it was probably another apocalypse. "I'm glad that you're going along with Willow's pet project though. It's really going to come in handy right now. Yknot is the only offspring of the First Evil. It and its offspring are partially corporeal. They manifest as black smoke. Now, if I remember right your specialty is just that sort of demon."

Booby sat a little further back into his chair. He had known for years that the Watcher's Council had the best researchers in the world, but he had never thought that they would ever bother to research his sort of demon, or honestly even know they existed as more than a footnote in an ancient text. They had their hands full with the sort the Slayers dealt with, and his sort rarely made their radar. He had also never thought that any of them would ever admit that a Hunter knew more than they did, even if the Council was made up of a bunch of kids these days. Even if Willow had made his job a lot easier, she was still a kid, not that much older than John's boys. Still, they did know what they were doing and being called up to help with an apocalypse was something that he couldn't turn his back on.

"I know John's demon has a preference for certain kinds of psychics; telekinetics, seers, persuaders, and the like. This file has everything I've managed to put together on tracking the bastard." Bobby held up one of the DVDs before handing it over. "Possessions have been shooting up for the last five years. The demons themselves have also been changing, something that hasn't happened in centuries. A couple of Hunters took out a demon that was causing plane crashes of all things, by possessing one of the passengers or pilots almost a year ago. A demon coming up with new ideas for death and mayhem is not a good thing. All sorts of haunting are up too, while encounters with monsters are going down. Those of us who collect information from the other Hunters are starting to think that they're hiding from something, either an event or something a hell of a lot bigger that is coming down the pipe. When monsters start trying to find bolt holes, it's time to pay attention.

"Now, if you're right about Yknot being a child of the First Evil, and the parent of my sort of demons, then it's going to be making a move soon. We used to get between three to five possessions a year. Last year we had over five hundred." Bobby was sure that Xander would be able to put those clues together.

"Crap," Xander muttered. "Even I know that these kind of demons like the number six."

Bobby nodded. Xander hadn't disappointed him. He handed over another disk. "This is everything I have on Yknot. It isn't much and I never knew about its parentage. Now, why do you want to know about Winchester's demon?"

"Yknot _is_ the demon John Winchester has been chasing for the last nineteen years. I've had our tracking division working on seeing what we could do to help him track it down as part of his and Dean's signing bonus. Now that we've know that it's Yknot we think we've managed to figure out why it keeps going after Sam or his family."

Bobby groaned and shook his head in denial. There was one thing the Council was famous for; besides training Slayers and being the best at demonic research in the world, and that was finding and figuring out prophecies just in the nick of time to stop them. Xander didn't disappoint him.

"We found part of a prophecy. Unfortunately the only copy we have of it was partially destroyed. What we could make out was: _Hunting Seer who watches his own blood/His blood watches over Artemis' daughters/_ there's a chunk missing there _/Yknot born from the mind of the First/Children of the mind, his followers become/Hunter's blood…_something…something…_ floods the world in darkness_. Usually we can find a complete copy of any prophecy, but so far we haven't been able to find anything else. We're hoping you have some ideas on where to look if you don't have one."

Bobby shuddered. If that wasn't a description of Sam, he'd eat his hat. "How much time do we have?"

"If Giles is right, and we're not sure of that because we don't have a complete copy of the prophecy, then we have less than a week."

* * *

Jordan stormed into the Slayer House at top speed. Hanna was right behind her. There wasn't anyone in the kitchen, at least no one from their family. There were six of the students from the study groups, but they knew that their Watchers would have chased everyone who was not involved in their latest hunt out of the library. The girls dumped their bags on one of the counters and headed upstairs.

"Dean, please tell me there's something I can kill," begged Hannah as the Slayers came into the library.

"Sorry Hannah," Dean smiled. He knew both Slayers were strung tight with stress from the tests. "This one's non-corporeal. Plus you have a final tomorrow afternoon." He was pouring over a pile of blueprints while John was counting shotgun shells with one hand. John had Johnny leaned up against his shoulder, with his other arm under the baby's backside. Johnny was out cold. Poor baby had a case of the sniffles.

"If I don't know it by now, I never will," Hannah said firmly. She took Mary from Sam who was looking through missing persons reports on his laptop. Detective Evans had the paper copies of the ones that hadn't made it into the system on the other side of the table, well away from the reaching hands of the little girl.

"Thanks," Sam said. "She's starting to fuss. I think she might be coming down with Johnny's cold."

"Even if it's a ghost, we can still help right?" Jordan asked.

"What do we need in the way of physical supplies?" John rumbled.

"Rock salt and solid iron buckshot shells, cast iron fireplace pokers, gasoline, loose rock salt, matches, body bags if the remains are not in a grave, shovels if they are, Sam's exorcism book, chalk and string, spray paint, snacks and a babysitter for the twins," Jordan rattled off.

"Ok, most of that list makes sense," Evans interrupted, "but why would you need iron buckshot, fireplace pokers, chalk and string, spray paint and snacks?"

"The snacks are for our Slayers mostly," John said with a grin. "I learned a long time ago that a hungry kid does not help when you're hunting." Memories of Dean's whining during his hollow leg years were amusing for John now, but it had been a real pain for him to deal with at the time.

"Pure iron, like cast or wrought iron, acts like salt does on ghosts. So if you can't shoot a ghost, most often because a person would get hit, swinging a fireplace poker works just as well to disperse the ghost for a while," Dean explained.

"And the chalk, string and spray paint are for more serious things, like if we have to do a full on exorcism or something. There are a lot of protective symbols and the like that we can use in our work, and the surface you have to work with determines if you use chalk or paint," Sam finished up. Evans shook his head and went back to his search. It was amazing to him how practical these people were in such an extremely impractical field.

"Why is it that every time a woman went missing back then the cops decided she ran off of her own free will?" Sam asked. He had found far more of those than he had expected, even after a lifetime of doing this sort of research.

"Two reasons," Evans said. "The first is that it was the height of the depression. Cops were busy dealing with a lot of petty crime as well as more serious ones committed by people who were just plain desperate. Almost every woman who went to college in those days was looking for a husband, or at least that was what most people thought. So, as most of these women are college students and not from around here, it was easier for them to assume that either the girls' parents ran out of money or she found Mr. Right and didn't need to be here. The second reason was more pragmatic. If someone actually had money in those days, they could get away with anything. I'm sure there were more than a few incidents of rape swept under the rug. If a woman was assaulted it wouldn't surprise me to learn she had left because she couldn't get any justice against a moneyed young man or older man for that matter."

Sam looked disgusted, but accepted Evan's theory. They were dealing with a vengeful ghost after all. They went back to pursuing anything really suspicious in the files, although Sam was less than confident that they would be able to find anything useful.


End file.
